Last week was a great week in all I must say. Lots of thrills, giggles and steamed fish! We travelled up on the Tuesday beforehand, because I was now a title challenger I became elevated to diva status. Starting with first-class train tickets to Manchester, although I couldn’t scoff half a dozen free sandwiches and cakes like Danny Whatts. I made full use of the free wifi. It was a pleasant start. We checked into the Lowry hotel, Manchester. Me and Danny followed Adam to his “suite” to see how the other half live. It was unnecessarily big, with complimentary phone calls and one pay-per-view film a day. This included adult movies too which Danny was eager to know. I checked into my room, watched bad TV for the rest of the evening and enjoyed my steamed sea bass, brown rice and veg.
Wednesday came quick, after breakfast I went for a walk with Ruben and Danny to learn more about the Manchester coacher and locate “C2 FEET” the chiropodist recommended to us. I was seen by a nice woman who despite her best efforts failed to sell me an instep sole and totally missed Danny’s comment of “We asked concierge if there were any sexy chiropodist’s in Manchester, they said they didn’t know any so they sent us here”. Training that evening was interesting. I couldn’t walk properly, my feet were that bad. Me and Adam did static pads for the Sky cameras and let rip on each other in an interview after. I didn’t think they would televise my “admiration for Adam’s dedication to the issue of hair-colour”. If you look closely his hair now sports a nice gingery tone under those spotlights. It was a proud moment for me, even if it was a total cock-up on his part!
Thursday. We got to the press conference and for the very first time I would come face to face with an opponent before the weigh in. I wasn’t sure how to play it. My main aim was not to embarrass myself. Adamu said he was going to kill me, I love it! Now I was well and truly up for this fight. All my friends from Sky told me to keep it in, don’t waste the adrenaline at the press conference. I didn’t BUT after making fun of my height advantage over Adamu and going head to head for the cameras my mouth started twitching. It was the strangest thing. That evening we trained at Hatton’s gym. Wow what a fantastic facility he has built! Ricky was there and we spoke during my sweaty session. I must admit I was star-struck, I managed to ponce an official Hatton towel and left the gym, on weight and on top of the world.
Friday was now upon us. David was telling me how much he loves the weigh in. He said this is when everything begins. You have the stare down, the fans are buzzing, and the media is building. I just think it’s because he has muscles like a Greek god, and they are out on show for the world to admire. I weighed in 11.13 ½ pounds. Exactly what I wanted. I flexed, climbed off and gave Adamu the best “I don’t give a shit” look I could. David was right, it has begun. One more sleep.
Now we’re here, fight night. I haven’t ever felt so alive. I had to perform a urine sample for the commission and a performance is what it was. After choosing which container and matching lid I wanted and standing in a toilet cubical while a perfect stranger cheered my pee into a plastic beaker I was ready to crack on with my warm up. I had spent the whole day with a clear head. Not answering the phone to my friends because I didn’t want to waste any fuel talking about fighting. Adam bandaged my hands, I slipped on a dangerous pair of Grant gloves and slowly edged to full speed. A voice from the door way said 1 minute George, you’re on. You ready? I most certainly was.
Thank you to everyone who has taken an active interest in me becoming the Commonwealth champion. I hope you all enjoyed the fight, an extra big thanks to everybody who travelled up. I hope now to see you all soon before I start preparing for my next fight.
Saint.
Monday, 19 July 2010 00:00 | Written by George Groves |
This week I upped my sparring by again drafting in the services of Kenny Anderson, and also a Frenchman called Oliver Henry. He's a riot policeman in his native Paris and this was evident in his sparring sessions! Between them we rattled out two high quality sessions, the latter 10 solid rounds.
