Seven long, frustrating months have passed since Shane McGuigan masterminded George Groves' victory over Chris Eubank Jnr in their bloody battle of Britain
But on Friday night, more than 3,000 miles from the Manchester Arena, the two rivals will share the same ring once more
In the unfamiliar surroundings of Saudi Arabia, Groves faces Liverpool's Callum Smith for the Muhammad Ali Trophy and his WBA super-middleweight crown, while Eubank begins his road back to the top against JJ McDonagh on the undercard
For McGuigan, 30, the World Boxing Super Series final in Jeddah is the latest stop on a career that began amid the green fields and rolling hills of Somerset
It was during his days at Millfield that the 14-year-old took his first tentative steps into the sport that funded his private education
The prestigious school is a far cry from the myriad modest gyms where Groves and many others learned their trade
But as the son of a boxing icon, McGuigan is used to taking the roads less travelled
'I feel like it opened my mind to the opportunities of life because everyone there has come from different backgrounds, some might be lawyers' kids, entrepreneurs' kids, they might be on scholarships - Millfield gave a lot of scholarships so you had kids coming from the estate just round the corner,' he tells Sportsmail at his Wandsworth gym earlier this year
'I used to go to private school and go to a boxing gym afterwards and I would be knocking lumps out of people from the estate but that's what made me feel normal
There would be kids coming in helicopters and when you look at my cousins they all come from Clones (in Ireland)
'We don't come from money. Although I'm first generation success as it were - Dad did well for himself - our immediate family wasn't
So it made me feel normal going to the gyms and I just loved to scrap, to fight.' Despite his name and the talent he inherited, the successful amateur was given few favours from his fellow fighters
'I used to get ripped all the time. Because I went to private school I had to train with the seniors when I was a junior,' he recalls
'But it built character, it built that thick skin and if someone like (Chris) Eubank (Snr) tries to call me out publicly and shame me, it doesn't faze me one bit
You laugh at it because that's just the way I grew up.' Before his son's defeat in February, Eubank Snr labelled McGuigan a 'PE teacher' and questioned whether a man who quit fighting at 21 had the credentials to train a top boxer
But as both McGuigan and Eubank Jnr know, any son of a famous fighter is guaranteed a tough schooling
'I don't resent anything, the only thing that put pressure on me was just the target, the McGuigan name
(It) was like a target on my forehead,' he says. 'I remember going and sparring. these kids just want to chin you and Eubank had it
He had it the whole way through his amateur career as well.' These shared experiences mean that, despite the bad blood that filled the build-up to Groves' victory, McGuigan has 'huge respect' for the beaten Eubank
'I respect Junior a lot because he's a good fighter and he chose the hardest sport to do and he didn't need to,' he says
'Personally, I chose to box but then I thought, "Do I want to go pro and open myself up to abuse for the rest of my life? Nah, i'll do something different"
' But would he ever work with the 29-year-old? 'No because I don't feel like he's in a position to listen
And also my fighter is Groves. If i've chosen to work with George, which I have, and I've built up this relationship, he'd be the last person I'd want to work with
' At only 30, McGuigan has already worked with a host of British talent, including Carl Frampton and David Haye
Alongside his pet bulldog, Titan, the fighters who call his gym home include the brilliant Josh Taylor and Luke Campbell, who won his first fight under McGuigan on the undercard of Anthony Joshua's victory over Alexander Povetkin
'I've got my own methods of training and I try not to contaminate my mind with other people's work
It's almost like you're an artist and you have your way of painting, your method and you have to have full faith and trust in that,' he says
'When you start looking at other people and thinking, "Look at that exercise, I'm going to start doing those," you don't know why they're implementing those methods
You're just free styling. Stay in your lane, do what you're good at and have full faith that you're going to get the most out of your athletes and it's more about understanding them as a whole, as a human being
' This week, all of McGuigan's focus is on Groves, who has overcome a shoulder injury to face Smith
In his last outing the tournament's No 1 seed proved wrong many who felt he was too old, too slow, too battle-worn to cope with the ferocious speed of Eubank
Those doubts have followed the London fighter since his defeats by Carl Froch and Badou Jack
Even after winning the world title in May 2017, many felt Groves was too scarred to reach the very top
'This game is a constant up-and-down wave,' McGuigan says. And on Friday Groves faces the latest crescendo in a career that has undulated more than most
'He had a patch that a lot of fighters wouldn't have been able to overcome,' McGuigan claims
'What makes them go over the hill as it were (is) when they lose that ability to come in the gym and give it their all
When they come in the gym and they're holding back because they're not really in love with it anymore
'I feel like George re-instilled the love for the sport - he hadn't achieved his goals, he'd made lots of money, he'd been one of the one per cent of boxing that's really successful financially but he was in it for all the right reasons
He wanted to become a world champion, it's what he set out to do when he was a kid
' The coach adds: 'He came into the gym with the right mentality to put his wrongs right and he gave me everything - his trust, he opened up to me as a person
'As a trainer you need to learn how to dissect them - find out what makes them tick, find out what their weaknesses are mentally and physically - it's a process and you need a lot of time to get to know these fighters and me and George have been working together for quite a long time now, but I feel like it's probably one of the most successful partnerships I've had because he was in a bad place coming in and now he's a completely changed man
' In the opposite corner in Jeddah will be Smith who, like Groves, has found the route to world honours filled with diversions
More than two years have passed since 'Mundo' won a final eliminator for the WBC title but McGuigan knows the threat he poses
'He's a much better fighter than Eubank,' the trainer admits. 'I feel like the fundamentals of boxing, Eubank didn't get taught - footwork, how to track distance, how to jab his way into distance, moving his head - he kind of just rushed in with wild shots
Top guys are able to diffuse that and hit you hard on the way in, whereas Smith is a lot more seasoned
' He adds: 'I don't know if he's quite as tough as Eubank and I don't think it'll be as physical a fight, it'll be a more technical fight
It's a completely different fight but. it's harder than Eubank.'
For more infomation >> இந்த நல்ல மனசு யாருக்கு வரும் போலீஸ் செய்ததை கண்கலங்காம பாருங்க | TAMIL NEWS LATEST SEITHIGAL - Duration: 1:24. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét