By George, this fight lacks hype

In all the euphoria around the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS), Friday’s super-middleweight clash is the most muted.

WBSS has already claimed a winner in the cruiserweight when Ukrainian Oleksander Usyk took all the four world title belts.

On Friday it will be up to the super-middleweight rivals to produce a winner when British boxers George Groves and Callum Smith clash in Saudi Arabia.

Despite the excitement that prevailed around the cruiserweight clash, the super-middleweight final has not generated similar enthusiasm.

The fact that the fight could not raise enough interest in Britain and had to be taken to Saudi Arabia, which is a non- boxing country, reinforces the lack of interest in this final.

This could have been influenced by the absence of quality in the division with other notable boxers having not entered the series.

Fighters suchs as WBC champion David Benavidez, WBO king Gilberto Ramirez, IBF ruler Jose Uzcategui, James de Gale to mention a few , were not part of the series, leaving those considered to be second-tier material to battle it out.

Groves is arguably the only recognised boxer in the series but even then he is better known for his bruising losses to Carl Froch than his own achievements in the ring.

Admittedly he eliminated Chris Eubank Jnr but Eubank is better known for his father’s exploits than his own success.

Eubank will take on JJ McDonagh in another clash.

Smith is down the pecking order among hotshots in the division.

Like James Toney once said before the all-British middleweight showdown between Nigel Benn and Eubank Snr years back, this fight is good enough to be billed as a domestic encounter rather than world-class clash.

This will contribute to the winner not being recognised as the best in the division unlike Usyk who has since been accepted as the true champion in the cruiserweight.