British and Commonwealth super-middleweight champion, ‘Saint’ George Groves has favoured WBO light-heavyweight champion, Nathan Cleverly to be the victor when he meets domestic challenger Tony Bellew on October 15^th.

Groves has recently received the prestigious Boxing Writers Young Boxer of the Year 2011 award, a year after Cleverly won the accolade. The award winners have spent part of their training camps sparring together at the Hayemaker Gym in London. In that time Groves has been impressed with what he’s seen, “Nathan is a very, very good fighter. He’s a very talented fighter and that’s why he’s got world champion status.”

Having seen Cleverly closer than most in the game have, Groves believes that the destiny of the fight is in the hands and mind of Cleverly. The West Londoner commented, “I think it’s going to be a tremendous fight. If Nathan keeps his head and keeps cool then he should run out an easy winner for me.”

“Bellew obviously can punch hard and he’ll be up for this fight more than any other fight and I think you definitely can’t write Bellew off, he’s a very good fighter. But with the form, experience and natural ability I’ll say that Nathan will win.”

One of the aspects of Cleverly’s game that’s particularly impressed Groves was Cleverly’s deceiving defence. Groves stated, “He’s very large for a light-heavyweight and his physical frame is very big. He can fight in close and cover the shots well, he’s got a shell like defence as well and it can be hard to get your punches off which is impressive.”

“It’s something that you come across time to time in your career but it’s usually the smaller guys that are good at clamming up and punching off that. But Nathan can do it being a bigger lad and the fact that he has long arms and he can box at long range as well adds to his game.”

Like Cleverly, Groves faces a tough Scouser next in Paul Smith on November 5^th at Wembley Arena and he’ll be aiming to put in a similar performance to what he thinks Cleverly will produce against Everton’s Bellew.

“We’re both putting in the hard graft as you can expect. Nathan’s looking very good, obviously he’s boxing a couple of weeks before me so he’s a little bit in front of me fitness wise. I think you’re going to see a better Nathan than in his last few fights. He’s boxed very well and been in with tough guys and he’s taken good opponents at late notice but this time he’s able to focus on a particular opponent and we’re going to see a really good performance from Nathan.”

In May, Groves defeated fierce local London rival and Olympic Gold medallist, James DeGale on the same show as Cleverly’s first world title fight. The extent of the rivalry saw the British and Commonwealth unification fight somewhat overshadow Cleverly’s world title fight and the amount bad blood can be compared to that shared between Cleverly and Bellew.

As the heat continues to increase for the October 15^th bout, Groves insists that Cleverly doesn’t need to respond to Bellew’s strong worded comments, saying, “The hardest challenge for that fight was controlling my temperament, not just during the fight but during the press conferences. Nathan knows that Bellew is a good talker and he can get under your skin. The pressure is on Nathan because he’s the champion, he’s the one expected to win and the favourite. He doesn’t need to do any talking, if he performs like he can perform then he’ll win the fight.”

As DeGale’s taunts intensified it only seemed to spur Groves’ resilience of becoming emotionally involved, which he obviously benefited from and he thinks Cleverly’s maturity in the face of pre-fight hostility will assist the Welshman too.

“I think it’s vitally important that you don’t become emotionally involved and you don’t show any sort of weaknesses or get rattled. Emotion can be a big weakness, I only remember once at the final press conference and I bowed to a demand that I didn’t really want to do. Although Nathan was a bit rallied that time when they were supposed to box before at the press conference, this time round he’s kept cool and calm, stayed focused and that’s the only way to get the best out of yourself.