George Groves chooses to fight Jamie Cox in Boxing Super Series quarter-final

By Mark Crellin

George Groves, Callum Smith and Chris Eubank Jr have all picked their opponents for the opening round of the World Boxing Super Series

Top seed George Groves has opted to fight British rival Jamie Cox in his World Boxing Super Series quarter-final.

The last-eight pairings were announced in the glamorous setting of Monaco on Saturday night, ahead of what is being hailed as a revolutionary knockout event.

Eight super-middleweights and eight cruiserweights will square off, with the quarter-finals in each division set for September/October this year, ahead of the semis and finals in 2018.

The winners of the tournament will receive the Muhammad Ali Trophy and the top four seeds in each category picked their opening opponents on Saturday night.

Callum Smith is another Brit who will take part in the super-middleweight division and the second seed chose to face Sweden's Erik Skoglund.

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Image: Chris Eubank Sr hopes his son can set up a fight against Avni Yildirim

The third seed will be the winner of the upcoming Chris Eubank Jr-Arthur Abraham fight and, with that duo in training, Chris Eubank Sr was on hand to pick Avni Yildirim as the opponent for next week's winner.

If a world champion such as Groves fights during the series, their belt will be on the line but the 29-year-old Londoner does not expect to lose his title to Cox.

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"Me and Jamie are old buddies," said Groves. "We've known each other a long time now.

"I quite fancied a bit of a domestic dust-up. I've provided him a great opportunity, he's fighting for a world title.

"It's also a strategic move. It's a long tournament, so I picked the easy guy first."

World Super Series quarter-finals:

Super-middleweight

George Groves v Jamie Cox

Callum Smith v Erik Skoglund

Chris Eubank Jr/Arthur Abraham v Avni Yildirim

Juergen Braehmer v Rob Brant

Cruiserweight

Oleksandr Usyk v Marco Huck

Murat Gassiev v Krzysztof Wlodarczyk

Mairis Briedis v Mike Perez

Yunier Dorticos v Dmitry Kudryashov

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