Dilks: “I’ll expose Groves as being just a bully”

Carl Dilks has vowed to “expose” George Groves ahead of their likely showdown later this year. The pair were slated to meet on the David Haye-John Ruiz undercard but Groves pulled out to challenge Commonwealth super-middleweight champion Charles Adamu and produced a scintillating display to stop the Ghanaian in the sixth round. In doing so, Groves cemented his reputation as one of British boxing’s brightest young stars in front of a packed M.E.N Arena.

In contrast, Dilks faced Carl Drake in the evening’s opening bout in front of only a handful of spectators. Those who arrived early though witnessed a spectacular one-punch knockout from Dilks in round six which left the Plymouth battler out cold for several minutes and in need of medical assistance afterwards.

“Drake was very tough. I dropped him in the first 30 seconds with a left hook but after that I switched off and didn’t box that well. But then in the final round I finished him with a peach of a right hand. I shit myself when I landed it because I saw his eyes rolling at the back of his head before he hit the floor and then he went down really heavily. I phoned him two days later to make sure he was all right and thankfully he’s ok,” said Dilks.

The Liverpool man, who recorded his 14th victory in 16 fights, is uncertain of his next move. Purse bids were previously called for a British title eliminator between Dilks and Scotland’s Kenny Anderson. However, in the British Boxing Board of Control’s latest circulars Dilks’ name was omitted and Anderson has now been paired with former British super-middleweight champion Tony Quigley in a final eliminator.

“I haven’t got a clue what’s going on. (Manager) Steve Wood’s father has sadly passed away so obviously I don’t want to bother Steve at the moment. The plan was for me to fight again in May and then challenge George Groves in June or July but I’m awaiting confirmation,” admitted Dilks.

On paper, Groves would be a strong favourite to maintain his unbeaten record against Dilks. The hot prospect effortlessly swept aside Adamu who had never previously been stopped. In comparison, Dilks conceded a contentious split decision loss to Adamu when challenging for the Commonwealth crown four months earlier. Dilks remains adamant though that he can spring a major upset.

“I was impressed with Groves and thought he looked very good. He can whack a bit, he’s fast and elusive and looks very pleasing on the eye. If I’m being brutally honest I thought Adamu looked a million times worse than when I fought him but Groves made him look like that and I thought he boxed really well. I still think I’d beat Groves though,” insisted Dilks.

“Groves looks like a bully to me, he loves dishing it out but I don’t think he likes taking it back. If you can manage to put him on the back foot and start landing a couple of shots I think it would be a different story. Not even if you put him on his back foot, if you were to just put him under pressure, and keeping working, working, and working I think things would be different. I reckon Groves might be a bit gun shy,” speculated Dilks.

“Once you start landing on Groves it would ruffle his feathers and then we’d find out how good he is. He’s all right going forward, picking his shots and dictating what he wants to do but I’ll be hitting him back hard and then we’ll see what happens. I know I can take a good punch and I’m prepared to take a shot to land my own,” he continued.

By his own admission, Dilks is currently struggling to shake off his ‘capable contender’ tag and is itching for the opportunity to prove himself against the best super-middles in Britain.

“At the moment I’m a bit under the radar. Everyone is going on about Groves, DeGale and Smith but none of them have beaten me and I’m ranked in the top four in Britain so I don’t understand why they are all looking past me.”

“They (Team Groves) have assured me that I’ll get first crack at Groves, good on them, but then I’ll take their title. I think the fight between us will now be a bill topper, which is more exposure for me, and it will be even better afterwards when I expose Groves. I’m going to take him into the trenches and he won’t like it,” added Dilks.