George groves retires from boxing

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George Groves: Former WBA world super-middleweight champion retires
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Image captionGroves won a world title at the fourth time of asking and retired with 28 wins from 32 bouts
Former WBA world super-middleweight champion George Groves has announced his retirement from boxing.

Groves, 30, lost his world title to fellow Briton Callum Smith in the World Boxing Super Series final in September.

It was his 32nd bout in an 11-year professional career and in announcing his retirement Groves said he "knew the desire to fight had left" him.

He said: "I don't want there to be a time where I'm 'too old' to box, or where injury retires me."

In a statement, Groves offered "a prayer" for Eduard Gutknecht, who suffered a brain aneurysm after their fight in 2016, leaving him unable to walk or talk.

"This fight brought home the realisation that boxing can have brutal consequences," Groves added. "After this, I truly felt like my fighting days were numbered. After winning the WBA world title I decided to only continue fighting while it felt necessary."

Groves claimed the title with a stoppage win over Russia's Fedor Chudinov in May of 2017, ending a much publicised wait for a world title.

The Hammersmith fighter had lost twice to Carl Froch in pursuit of a world belt and in 2015 fell to a narrow split-points defeat at the hands of Sweden's Badou Jack in Las Vegas.

Defeat by Smith when defending his world title for a third time means Groves only career defeats have all come in world title contests.

"After four attempts I finally fulfilled my childhood dream, and the experience was as great as I had always imagined it would be," Groves added. "It was without doubt the best moment of my career.

"Boxing has been good to me and I believe I have been good for boxing. I hope I have entertained you all; I have always strived to be the best fighter I can be."
 
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