Badou Jack retained his WBC super middleweight title by beating George Groves in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Jack won the 12-round bout on a split decision -- 116-111 and 115-112 against 114-113 for the British challenger.

The bout on the undercard of the pay-per-view in which Floyd Mayweather fought Andre Berto was one of the best super middleweight fights of the year, with both boxers showing skills, courage and everything else the spectators could have asked for.

Groves was down in the first round against the bigger, stronger American but gave as good as he got as they kept up a blistering pace throughout the twelve rounds.

Jack improved his record to 19-1, with one draw and twelve wins inside the distance and Groves now stands at 21-2; 16.

"Groves has a lot of heart,'' said Jack, who was making the initial defense of the WBC belt he took from Anthony Dirrell in April.

"Body work is becoming my signature. I wasn't effective enough because I couldn't knock him out. I felt like after the first round I could but I just couldn't. I didn't go to the body enough.

"I haven't thought about my next fight yet, but there's a lot of big fights for me. I heard Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. wants to fight me. I want to enjoy this win but I will fight anyone."