George Groves and Chris Eubank Jr will battle it out in Manchester next week but it turns out it won’t be the first time the two stepped into a ring with one another.

The Englishmen have sparred in the past and is something that is starting to be discussed by both men more and more as the fight draws closer.

Of course, both version of events appear to be a little different, as is often the case in boxing.

But from Groves’ perspective, he is more than happy with how he dealt with Eubank Jr in the past.

According to Give Me Sport, Groves said of the sparring with Eubank Jr that:

“We used to spar and I used to steady his legs constantly with right hands and that was way back in the day when I would only throw a few shots around and would move from rope to rope.”

He added:

“He (Eubank Jr) had a big full-face head guard on, I’m hitting him with 16oz gloves.”

The needle is really starting to come out the closer the fight gets, with months gone by the two been relatively respectful since the bout was initially announced back in November.

Now that the reality of the fight is only around the corner next week the war of words is starting to boil over.

George Groves told the folks of IFL YouTube here that he is not impressed (to say the least) with some of these comments from Eubank Jr: