Groves stepping it up again

Super-middleweight prospect George Groves will be fighting a 10 round contest for the first time on the November 7th Haye v Valuev bill on Sky Box Office. The 'Saint' will be taking on Belarussian number one Konstantin Makhankov.

It's another impressive step forwards for the 21 year-old Londoner who will be fighting for only the 7th time as a professional. Makhankov boasts a far superior record to Groves's recent opponents, including a win over Artem Solomko who recently took Tony Jeffries the distance over six rounds in Sunderland.

The Belarussian champion has 15 wins (5 KO) with 18 losses, though he has only ever been stopped once, four years ago against Victor Oganov. That was Oganov's 23rd fight and it's a measure of Groves' early promise that he has been matched with Makhankov in only his 7th outing.

The fight will be the young Brit's third in just 34 days after stoppage wins over Martins Kukuls at the York Hall and Tadas Jonkus in Sunderland, marking the culmination of a busy period following some frustrating inactivity during Hayemaker's post-Setanta struggles.

"Things are looking a lot sunnier for me right now and it doesn't get much better than fighting on the undercard of a world heavyweight title fight" Groves said.

"I was due to fight six times in my first 12 months and by early November I'll have gone past that. Early next year I want to be looking at Southern Area or English titles".

A shot at the Southern area title would mean a fight with Finchley's Tony Salam and that would certainly be an exciting fight to see at the start of next year. In the meantime though, Groves will be concentrating on fighting over ten rounds for the very first time against a durable, experienced opponent and that in itself will provide the Hammersmith hopeful with a stern test.