clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Groves vs Anderson II, DeGale vs Sanavia Set For March 16 in London

James DeGale and George Groves are once again set to co-headline a bill in London. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)
James DeGale and George Groves are once again set to co-headline a bill in London. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)
Getty Images

British super middleweight champion George Groves will look to score a second win over tough Kenny Anderson on March 16, as the two will meet at Wembley Arena in London.

Jake Donovan reports that Frank Warren won the purse bid for the fight, as would be expected, and the fight will of course air on Warren's BoxNation subscription channel in the UK.

Groves and Anderson first met in November 2010, with Groves facing more than a handful of trouble against the Edinburgh battler. Groves (14-0, 11 KO) was dropped in the fourth round of the fight, a result of fearlessly trading shots with Anderson (15-1, 11 KO), whose heavy hands proved to be no lie.

But with trainer Adam Booth screaming in his face between rounds, Groves took the gutcheck and eventually stopped Anderson in the sixth round. It wasn't the most definitive stoppage win you'll see, but Anderson at the time offered no real complaints, as Groves was laying it on him by that point.

This fight nearly came together last summer, after Groves upset James DeGale to claim the British belt at 168, but Groves instead wound up fighting Paul Smith in November, scoring a big second round TKO victory.

With Groves, 23, still not quite ready to move up to European or world level, a rematch with the 29-year-old Anderson makes plenty of sense. Groves has improved since first fighting Anderson, but there's still a bit of a demon there. Anderson has gone 3-0 since the loss, but against fairly lousy competition.

A strong win here would put Groves on the path to perhaps rematch DeGale (11-1, 8 KO), who now holds the Euro strap and will also fight on the card against Italy's Cristian Sanavia (45-5-1, 13 KO). Groves and DeGale were supposed to co-headline a bill in December, but that fell apart when Groves pulled out due to a hand injury, and DeGale backed out a couple of weeks later. DeGale also had a January 27 makeup date booked at one point, but that fell through as well.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for the Bad Left Hook Daily Roundup newsletter!

A daily roundup of all your global boxing news from Bad Left Hook