SWINDON-BASED George Groves is delighted his rematch with Carl Froch will be staged at Wembley Stadium but claims his bitter rival will have more than the venue to worry about come fight night.
Following Froch’s controversial stoppage of Groves back in November in Manchester, the pair will now rematch at the national stadium on Saturday, May 31.
The IBF and WBA super-middleweight clash is now set to supercede all stadium attendance records in the UK.
Pre-war, in July 1933, just over 70,000 spectators watched Irishman Jack ‘Gorgeous Gael’ Doyle fight the Welshman Jack Petersen at White City, the 1908 Olympic Stadium, for the British heavyweight title.
More recently, Ricky Hatton’s homecoming fight against Juan Lazcano at the City of Manchester Stadium in 2008, which drew over 55,000 fans that night.
Promoter Eddie Hearn believes Froch-Groves II could attract around 80,000 at Wembley and Groves is looking forward to what he says will be “a fantastic night”.
Groves, who is trained by Swindon trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick, said: “I have boxed at Wembley Arena and had a fantastic night there.
“This is a little bigger but boxing in London, the capital of the country and a national site, people are happy to travel here and it had to be a big city to host a big event, which is what ruled out poor Nottingham.
“I think I have got a lot of advantages and the venue or city is the least of his (Froch’s) concerns.
“The advantage he wants to worry about are the ones I displayed last time we boxed - he has more things to worry about rather than where it takes place.”
Arch rival Froch is looking forward to “making history” and putting Groves “behind him”.
“For me to be involved in an event like this is a very proud moment,” Froch said.
“With it being in the capital city as well, it just makes the whole history of the event phenomenal. It's fantastic because Wembley Stadium’s massive.
“What’s it going to hold? Potentially 70,000, 80? If we did sell that, that would be phenomenal.
“Talk about making history, to go to a stadium like Wembley for such a big boxing match. Everybody's interested and it needs to be held at a big stadium really.
“I’m really looking forward to putting on this fight and putting him (Groves) behind me in this fabulous stadium. It doesn’t get any bigger than this for British boxing.
“I’m just so excited that I’m going to give George Groves an absolute pasting in front of such a big crowd.”
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