George Groves vs Martin Murray: Will retirement be the only option for the loser?

Next week is a big fight week in London as Anthony Joshua makes the first defense of his IBF world heavyweight title against Dominic Breazeale at the O2 Arena.

This week, however, I’m going to take a look at a very intriguing chief support bout on that card as Martin Murray takes on George Groves at super-middleweight.

A top-drawer all-English encounter, made possible by Murray’s move up one weight class from middle, the bout is technically for another flimsy not-actually-a-world championship - but fake titles aside, there are a lot of subplots.

Groves’ brash Londoner versus Murray’s St Helens everyman is one. The battle of perhaps the country’s two premier ‘nearly men’ in boxing is another. But my personal favourite is the stark contrast between their respective rises to prominence.

Murray is one of those names that pugilistic diehards will know all too well, but your casual fight fan may struggle to recall much about. For years he got his head down, trained hard and left Ricky Hatton and his promotional company in charge of his future. Being a ‘star’ wasn’t important; becoming a champion at what he does was.

Despite Hatton Promotions’ struggles since Matchroom Boxing made Sky coverage exclusive to themselves, Murray plowed on for years while others criticised how Hatton was mishandling the careers of those still under his umbrella. When Murray finally made the switch to the Hearn juggernaut in 2014 after five years, he didn’t get caught up in political dramas. He just carried on doing what he does.

His four failed world title challenges received less mainstream attention than just one of Groves’ two challenges of Carl Froch. And while he was unlucky the first two times, versus Felix Sturm (draw) and Sergio Martinez (very contentious decision in favour of the native Argentine), he was handily beaten by pound-for-pound elite Gennady Golovkin and came up short against Arthur Abraham.

Knowing his near-misses have started to become more gaping in recent years, Murray will definitely have a chip or two on his shoulder heading into a clash with someone who has lost as many world title bouts as he but likely made far more money in the process.

Groves burst onto the scene by way of his engrossing grudge with James DeGale which goes back to their very beginnings in boxing, and their fight in 2011, while only for the British super-middle strap, arguably drew more casual interest than any of Murray’s biggest fights, too.

Talking to the media a week before the fight with the full focus shifting to Joshua closer to the card itself, Murray did not mince his words at all when it came to Groves and his more lucrative path to this battle.

“I’ve been in bigger fights than him all over the world against better opposition,” said Murray.

“The fact that his name comes first means nothing to me – I’m a 33 year old grown man, how’s that going to bother me?

“He got his name by losing twice to Carl Froch and that’s how he’s the a-side. If I’m not established enough as a world class fighter as it stands now, I’m going to get it when I beat George, even though I’ve been in the bigger and tougher fights than him, that’s the way it is. He thinks that the 80,000 tickets at Wembley were down to him, nothing to do with Carl.

“He finds it easy to pass the blame. He blamed the referee after the first Froch fight, he blamed a ‘punch from the gods’ for the second fight and blamed Paddy Fitzpatrick for the Jack loss.

“After Badou Jack I heard he was talking about retiring. He’s come back and had two fights where he’s been firing at sitting ducks where there’s been nothing coming back at him, so he’s got his confidence back now, and that makes now he thinks that this is an easy fight; but it’s not, and when it gets tough he will crumble.

“I want him to keep thinking that it’s easy, because he’ll find out next Saturday how wrong he is and I can’t wait to prove it.”

Groves, who temporarily fought under Matchroom but has since switched to Sauerland (who retain a good relationship with Eddie Hearn), argued that the loser may well hang up their gloves.

“The truth is, you have to say: ‘Where does the guy who loses go from here?’,” he told Sky Sports.

“Every loss as a pro is a difficult rebuilding [job], you go back into that rebuilding stage and I am certainly not prepared to do it again and I am certainly not prepared to lose to Martin Murray.

However, that particular interview was about as balanced as ‘Saint’ George would get. When media hype for the scrap entered full swing, ‘the loser will retire’ became ‘Murray will retire’.

"I think if (Martin) loses he will think about packing it in,” Groves was quoted as saying in a Sauerland press release.

“I can’t speak for him but he’s older than me and he’s exhausted all the natural things that a fighter can do to win a world title.

"He didn’t pull it off at middleweight, he’s moved up to super middleweight and he’s had a crack at Arthur Abraham and let himself down there.

He’s got the domestic dust-up that he’s craved and that’s what is motivating him for this fight. If he doesn’t win then I don’t know where he goes from there.”

It will be a shame if this is the last pro bout for one of these men, as they’ve provided British boxing fans with plenty of entertainment this decade.

But the words of Groves echo in my mind, when it comes to this pairing. Where does the loser go from here? Not only that, but after so many failed world title tilts for each, is there actually anywhere for the winner to go after this mouthwatering showdown?