By Rick Reeno

Las Vegas, Nevada - Trainer Shane McGuigan is expecting a very big year for one of the biggest names in his stable, super middleweight contender George Groves (25-3, 18 KOs).

Groves had a very active 2016 - with four fights. He began his yearly campaign as early as possible, by stopping Andrea De Luisa in January. He returned in April with a knockout victory over David Brophy, came back in June to decision Martin Murray, and dominated Eduard Gutknecht over twelve rounds in November.

A few weeks ago, the World Boxing Association issued an order which directed Groves and Fedor Chudinov (14-1, 10KOs) to fight each other for the vacant WBA super middleweight title.

Chudinov (14-1, 10KOs) captured the WBA title in May 2015 when he upset Felix Sturm with a twelve round split decision in Germany. He made his first defense in September 2015 with a decision win over Frank Buglioni in London. 

The WBA ordered a rematch between Chudinov and Sturm - and it took place in February of last year. Chudinov lost a disputed twelve round majority decision. Several weeks later, it was discovered that Sturm had tested positive for banned steroid stanozolol. When it was revealed that German officials were preparing to charge Sturm with criminal offenses for allegedly using steroids, Sturm vacated his WBA title and moved from Germany to Bosnia - allegedly to escape criminal prosecution.

According to McGuigan, promotional powerhouse Sauerland Event, who promote Groves, are currently in the process of finalizing a venue for the showdown with Chudinov. 

"There are a couple of dates. Right now we're trying to nail down a venue. Chudinov wants the fight, he has to have the fight. George is the mandatory for that. I think it's a great fight. It's a great fight for George to take at this stage of his career. And to get that WBA, vacant 'super' title... if we can nail that down in the next couple of weeks it would be great. He's out here [in Las Vegas] right now and he's training with [Carl] Frampton. We're getting patiently ready and once the date is done then we are good to go," McGuigan told BoxingScene.com.

McGuigan was an interested observer in last Saturday's super middleweight unification between IBF champion James DeGale and WBC champion Badou Jack.

The twelve round contest was a fierce war. Jack was dropped with a flash knockdown in the first round. DeGale was seriously hurt and went down in the twelfth round. DeGale took a lot of punishment in the fight. He was cut, suffered a broken nose, a busted eardrum and lost a few of his teeth.

At the end, the official judges scored a majority draw. The outcome did not sit well with either side. Most ringside observers felt Jack had done enough to win with his tremendous 10-8 round in the twelfth.

McGuigan smiled as he discussed the contest - because Groves lost a twelve round split decision to Jack in September 2015. In that fight, Groves was down in the first round. But he recovered and made it a very competitive contest. There were critics of Groves' performance - and one of the bigger critics was DeGale, who felt Jack was a mediocre fighter and the worst champion at 168-pounds. 

"When George Groves fought Badou Jack, he was supposedly the easiest champion to beat apparently, the worst super middleweight in the world.. and George Groves.. supposedly should be shamed for not being able to beat him. The guy [Jack] has materialized into being one of the best super middleweights in the world," McGuigan said,

"Arguably [Jack] should have beaten James DeGale, had him gone in the last round. He dropped George Groves in the fist round, hurt him once or twice during the fight - but never really hurt him like he did James DeGale. Everyone is quick to write off George Groves and that's always been the case.... he's chinny, he fades down the stretch. The fact is, he's improving since he teamed up with me. He's got more of his mojo back, his confidence back. And I think this next year, these next two years, is going to be some of the most exciting times for his career."