In an exclusive interview with EscapistMagazine, George Groves criticized Daniel Dubois’ preparation for his fight with Oleksandr Usyk. He also said Jake Paul makes a MOCKERY of boxing, urging him to leave it alone.
Question: The talk, since the Usyk vs Dubois fight, has been about the so-called party that Daniel Dubois’s father threw, with Don Charles on the day of the fight. What’s your take on that?
George Groves: I mean, it’s the worst prep any fighter could ever have. They do not need to be surrounded by people in any sort of environment, pre-fight. Even doing it fight week is a bad idea, but on the day of the fight, it is bizarre. Most fighters would’ve been scratching their heads. Like it’s exhausting talking to people, right? And ultimately as a fighter you need to concentrate on the fight without wasting the energy of letting yourself get carried away with excitement or nerves. People are always going to be talking to you about the fight. How are you gonna beat Usyk? You can do this. Can you do that? As well as there’s that element of if it does have a bit of a party feel as if people are enjoying themselves, you are the one who’s got to go and get punched in the face later on that night. So why are you lot enjoying yourself so much?
The people around me would be nervous. They would be nervous for the bout that’s coming that evening, but also just nervous to be around me because ultimately my mindset is that I am going into battle and it is like, it feels like life or death. So I don’t get that at all. I mean, Daniel is very different from me and many other fighters. I’m sure he likes to be led. He likes to, should be told what to do, and I’m sure his dad is a dominating figure within his life. But if you need to surround yourselves with people for comfort, to me that is only a weakness. I saw that in someone who I was boxing, I see that as weakness. I’d think by this age he’d have a bit more autonomy on his own career.
Q: Do you think he’s being exploited by his dad?
A: I don’t know about being exploited. I mean there’s rumors aren’t there? There’s stuff that you hear about. I don’t know if that’s true. Lots of fighters or people like to be, as I say, controlled, you know, like or like to be led by their parents. And lots of times it makes for a successful career. Even just handling the buildup. It felt like Enzo Calzaghe was a lot more vocal than Joe Calzaghe during his career. I’m not saying he was fighting his battles verbally, but he would take a lot of the heat off them and there’s been, there’s been loads of examples of that. Danny Garcia’s dad’s voice springs to mind. There’s plenty of fighters throughout history where the parent or someone equivalent to the parent has alleviated them at times of the burden, which in the buildup and trash talk because it takes energy.
Q: It always felt with you, like you were kind of a one man army almost. Was that just how it worked more naturally for you?
Yeah, I think so. We never got together and had a strategy about essentially what was going to be said but I didn’t want anyone to speak for me. I thought I was a weakness for someone to almost fight your verbal battles. You and Carl Froch facing off with Eddie Hearn there was the classic! Yeah. It was Eddie and Lee Froch, the brother. He was chiming in too. But I think everyone, everyone is sort of different. But that’s a step too far. And if he did show up an hour after Usyk and he only arrived 90 minutes before the fight, that is not enough time because it takes 15 minutes to walk through Wembley. Even if someone’s leading you to your change room, you get in the changing room and you just want time. You just want time to, whatever your routine may be. And ultimately there’s divas within sport. But when you get in the changing room, I used to bring my own speaker and I used to go and plug my speaker in and I’d sync my phone up with the thing and I play my music. If you are not doing that, then what’s going on in your life? Like what, this is your moment.
Why are you not putting your playlist on? Or if you need someone else to put your playlist on for you, how pathetic are you? I wonder if he will look back on this in maybe 10 years time and be like, I should have spoken up a bit more for myself, but maybe we’ll never know.
He might not have got this far without his dad, so we can’t, we can’t throw his dad or anyone else under the bus. I think he’s had a fantastic run of performances with Don Charles. But ultimately you’re looking after the heavyweight champion of the world. What they say goes, and if someone is in control what they say. It doesn’t matter. It’s still what they, what they say goes. It’s very, it is very difficult to come in and say, this is not a good idea. Do it this way.
Q: Usyk says he doesn’t have motivation, he has discipline. That’s how he lives his life. Do you think British fighters lack that discipline in comparison? The likes of Prince Naseem Hamed, Tyson Fury, Ricky Hatton have struggled between fights especially.
A: I wouldn’t say, I wouldn’t say it was British fighters in general, like fighters from Britain. The Ukrainians seem to have a kind of different mindset almost, don’t they? Yeah. Well I think the Klitschkos had great discipline and Usyk is certainly the same. There was a rule of thought for a bit where you didn’t have to live and breathe boxing from a very early age.
You could start boxing like Anthony Joshua did in his late teens with very quick success and make it. But ultimately, if you’re going to be the best, it’s time invested and that is the discipline and if you’ve been training and dreaming of becoming a professional world champion from the age of 10 or younger, with that your sole goal and making sure that you stay disciplined throughout adolescence right the through, ultimately your career can only go as long as you’re willing to put the work in and be disciplined.
But It is hard to put the physical graft in and the mental graft and sometimes the emotional discipline during camp. And then you do need an off switch. You need someone around you to tell you to relax a bit. But how do you measure the relaxing if you go on a three week bender? Do you really need that or can you have a couple of nights out, a few beers and you’re back in the gym ticking over. You’re not back in the gym grafting for the next fight. You’re back in the gym ticking over. Ultimately fighters blow up in weight and then they’re training to get the weight off or just to get the joints back to working. Get the muscles woken up then discipline plays a key factor.
Q: Who deserves the next shot at Usyk? Where does the heavyweight division go from here?
A: I think he’ll beat Parker. I think he beats Agit Kabayel. I think he beats Moses Itauma now. I think maybe in 12 months he won’t beat Itauma. And maybe then that is like the passing of the torch. We never had that when Lennox Lewis retired at the top. He beat Klitschko, and he was done after that. Then Wladimir sort of took over and he got toppled by Fury, so there has to be a passing over. But then Fury tested positive for banned substances and he went off the rails and then obviously Joshua came in and Deontay Wilder came in and they had their run.
It feels like now we’re at the start of a new era almost. But that new era is almost over. It’s the Usyk era. Because he’s beaten all of these guys. He’s beat them and he’s gone back to the drawing board to beat him again. Do I wanna see Usyk vs Fury again? No. There is no point in that fight. They’re playing for best of five at this point. He (Usyk) soundly beat Fury. Almost knocked him out the first time, didn’t he? He soundly beat Joshua. The only fight now for Fury is Joshua. I think, have one and be done. I don’t think we need this rematch. Maybe do it over like five rounds. Just make it super exciting, rapid fire. I think Usyk has completed boxing and he should be done.
Q: Is Usyk your P4P top fighter right now in the world? Does anyone rank above him for you?
A: Top five? Inoue, he’s got to be somewhere. Crawford’s got to be somewhere. Bam Rodriguez had a great win at the weekend. Canelo’s still there on his day. He’s still up there. Hou have to judge him on who they’re beating. I would like to put Usyk at number one. I dunno whether he could go number one. The top three would be Inoue, Crawford and Usyk for me. Bivol… I dunno. That’s hard. Tough question. Because it’s like, who are they boxing? For Crawford just to be so dominant, in the Welterweight division. If he beats Canelo, then you put him on one. But if he gets beat, do you drop out of the top five? That’s not fair, is it? You know.
Q: Claressa Shields or Katie Taylor. Greatest women of all time in boxing. Who’s got it for you?
A: I’ll just say Katie Taylor. Because she was a pioneer of female boxing this side of the pond. It felt like she was the first one that real boxing fans were following. Not ’cause it was niche but for her boxing ability as a female fighter. I think she was the one who really moved the needle from his boxing.
Q: So Jake Paul called out Anthony Joshua. John Fury’s had his say – he reckons AJ could knock him out with his manhood. What’s your take on it? Will the fight happen?
A: Is his manhood wearing gloves, are they 10 ounces? Jake Paul, sometimes I’m there to defend him, sometimes I’m not. But he does make a mockery of boxing.There’s not a fighter he hasn’t called out. So it’s not like he’s got on the scales and gone, I’m a cruiserweight. I’m calling out all the cruiserweights. So he wants to fight welterweight then a heavyweight, then there’s a featherweight.
Ultimately, what he wants to do is not have a real fight, but I think he genuinely believes he’s a boxer. That’s why against Chavez, last time he’s picked a boxing name ’cause of his father, but a boxing name from 10 plus years ago. When you could just fight an influencer. Or you could just fight someone else. He’s not fighting any current boxers. But people just let him go. He was in, he was in the ring for a face off. How’s he got? How’s he got that? I wanna meet Usyk. I’ve got one picture with him, but I wanna be able to stand there with him and have a little conversation. I big him up and that. F**king Jake Paul’s there. What’s he bringing to table? He ain’t won no title. He can f**k right off, but somehow he’s there.
Q: A lot of people would actually wanna see the fight happen because. Anthony Joshua would obliterate him.
A: But does Joshua need to? I think that that would just keep hurting Joshua’s legacy. If he starts having joke fights ’cause that’s ultimately it would be recency bias. People would just remember, oh yeah, he boxed Ngannou, UFC fighter. Oh, he boxed a YouTuber. Knocked him around. Did he box Tyson Fury? No, he never boxed Tyson Fury. Just fight Fury. Like both guys. I’m not privy to the business side of their dealings. You know, from what’s put out in the media. It seems like Fury’s not interested. Joshua was chasing Fury for a bit. But now it’s kind of gone quiet.
I’m sure Eddie Herne will be saying, you can fight on forever. Fighting forever and just fighting Jake Paul. You get a rematch. We watch him fight again. Fight Fury 2028, keep the money coming in year after year. I suppose that’s the plan, isn’t it? They don’t care.
Q: Let’s have a hypothetical, Muhammad Ali and Usyk – if they had shared a ring at both their peaks, how would you see that fight going?
A: He was fast, very fast for a heavyweight, but obviously a small heavyweight. Ali was light years ahead of his time in terms of not just his boxing ability, but his ability to control everything outside of the ring, mind games and the press and everything else.
I’d love to have seen what it would’ve been like in this era. We think we do a lot of media now ’cause there’s so many media outlets. But the truth of the matter is, if you talk to some of the old journos, some of them no longer with us, they go to Ali’s hotel, they’d ask the concierge what rooms he’s in and they go knock on his door and ask for an interview. Just like that. You got Colin Hart telling that story. The fighters were accessible. And he’ll give him 45 minutes and poetry and just natural charisma.
I think he would’ve found a way to, to beat an Usyk but no one else has. Usyk’s definitely the greatest heavyweight of this era by a country mile.
Q: Philip Hrgovic and David Adelaide. Quick prediction on that one
A: I’d like to see what Hrgovic is like after getting beat by Dan Dubois. It doesn’t feel like he’s cropped up. Adelaide, you know, he got beat by Wardley, didn’t he? But on a bit of a resurge, I think this is a step up from Solomon Dacres for where he is at right now. I think Hrgovic beats him, but maybe not. Maybe the new Adelaide feeling good, punches hard, great left hook maybe, maybe beats him. But it’ll be a tough one. Decent fight.
Q: Moses Itauma, a step up for him really, isn’t it? I suppose you can say Dillon White is a gatekeeper now at this point in his career.
A: I think it’s a great match for Moses Itauma, like he’s been very well looked after. Francis Warren has done a brilliant job with him. We had Moses come on my podcast, right? Early doors. He had only had a handful of fights, and Francis as well came on and he spoke about the route to maybe becoming the youngest heavyweight champion. There would’ve been a time when, you know, maybe when the belt vacated, they could have got him in before Dubois, or maybe he would’ve boxed Dubois.
I’m not sure if the time frame fit it. Maybe he could have beat Dubois. But then he’s in the mix and he didn’t need to be then thrown in with Usyk. But I think this is a great match for him. Dillian White, I can’t remember the last time I saw him box. I remember after he failed the last drugs test before the Joshua fight. I think he boxed in Portugal or Dublin or something like that. He’s a name and if he’s got a bit about him still, it’s gonna be a challenge, but it wouldn’t surprise me Itauma blasts him out in two, three rounds. I think it’s a really good matchmaking.
I ain’t seen anyone else coming through really. So it would be great if there was half a dozen fighters as good as Moses Itauma or close to it where you’re like, oh, these guys are gonna meet real soon. They’re coming through. But it’s not the case right now, is it? There’s some exciting, uh, amateurs who had just turned over maybe in the heavyweight division. I can’t remember his name now…Atang? He’s looking good. There’s a couple of others, maybe in The States
Last Updated On: Jul 28, 2025 6:08 am CEST