By Edward Chaykovsky

Former super middleweight champion Carl Froch shook his head a few times while watching 'The Gloves Are Off' with George Groves and Martin Murray.

Groves and Murray will trade punches next Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London. Their fight is the Sky Sports Box Office co-feature to the heavyweight clash between IBF champion Anthony Joshua and unbeaten Dominic Breazeale.

Froch had two dramatic fights with Groves in 2013 and 2014 - and won both by stoppage. The second time, at Wembley, saw Froch knock Groves out cold before a record crowd of 80,000 fans.

Froch, in his most recent column for Sky Sports, had a real go at Groves. The two fighters were always far from friends. It's been two years since their rematch and both of them still throw occasional verbal jabs at each other. Froch still believes Groves has an ego problem and refuses to accept the blame for any of his past disappointments.

"He still came out with some ludicrous statements, like selling out those 80,000 tickets. Murray made me laugh when he mocked him, asking if he sold all of them himself - and there I was wondering what happened to the other 77,000 for his return at Wembley... Arena!," wrote Froch.

"Groves clearly thinks he's far superior to  Murray and he made that clear. Most of British boxing has this down as a genuine 50-50 fight but he insists he is the heavy favourite. You know fighters always say things like that, but if even you are a Groves fan - and the complete opposite to me -  you will have been sat there thinking: 'Why did you say that?'"

"I am not going to have a proper go at Groves and his over-inflated opinion of himself but he has failed three world title attempts. And on The Gloves Are Off, he blamed Paddy Fitzpatrick again. He's always got an excuse. When he accused Murray of being beaten from pillar to post against Gennady Golovkin, Martin hit back. He said it was the same as the first fight with me, yet told Groves he just wasn't fit enough to carry on after nine rounds."

"And then, there was no response, he had nothing to come back. I was glad to see some flashes of the old Groves, but maybe he has finally realised that shooting his mouth off does nothing. He used to give all of that stuff out and then get in the ring and let them big shots go. His jab is not the best in the business as he claims and from a fighter's perspective, I hope he realises he is in for a very, very hard night's work. I hope he doesn't think it's going to be an easy night's work against Murray because as a fighter, that is the worst mind set you can have."