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The winner of Friday's World Boxing Super Series final will become only the third Ring Magazine super-middleweight champion
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Groves and Smith make weight for Saudi showpiece as Mullingar's McDonagh faces off with Eubank

Irish champion JJ McDonagh has a career-biggest opportunity in the co-main event to Friday’s World Boxing Super Series decider.

WBA WORLD SUPER-MIDDLEWEIGHT champion George Groves and challenger Callum Smith have both made weight for Friday night’s World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) 168-pound final in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Britons will trade leather for the prestigious Muhammad Ali Trophy and Ring Magazine title as well as Groves’ WBA strap, with the winner likely to be perceived as the consensus top super-middleweight in world boxing. There have been only two other Ring Magazine super-middleweight champions: Joe Calzaghe and Andre Ward.

Londoner Groves, 30, tipped the scales at 167.8 pounds while Liverpool’s Smith, 28, came in half a pound lighter before the fighters came face to face for the penultimate time at the Radisson Hotel in the Al Salamah District.

Veteran Groves [28-3, 20KOs] is a slight favourite with the bookies to retain his crown during Friday night’s long-awaited encounter, but suffered a dislocated shoulder in his semi-final win over Chris Eubank Jr in February which required surgery and weeks of agonising recovery.

Smith [24-0, 17KOs], a giant for the division at six-foot-three, believes Groves’ years of battle will work against him at the 10,000-capacity arena in King Abdullah Sports City on Friday night.

“He’s a good fighter and I’ve got a lot of respect for him, but he looks like an old man. He looks like he’s a had a very hard career.

“He’s had a very good career, but there’s a lot of miles there. I just think I’m the younger, fresher, better man, and I’m here to take his title.”

In the co-main event out east, Irish super-middleweight champion JJ McDonagh [16-4, 8KOs] faces beaten WBSS semi-finalist Chris Eubank Jr in what has been considered a stay-busy fight for the latter.

McDonagh, however, is confident of an upset victory in Friday night’s 10-rounder having sparred the former world title challenger last year.

The Assassin Boxing-managed Mullingar man, who boasts on his record a first-round knockout win over the previously unblemished Briton Jake Ball, weighed in three pounds shy of the 168-pound limit limit.

Eubank didn’t have an ounce to spare but looked in typically ripped shape as he aims to bounce back from February’s points defeat to Groves.

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Groves v Smith and Eubank v McDonagh will both be shown live on ITV Box Office on Friday. The fight is available to purchase for viewers in the Republic of Ireland but first-time ITV Box Office customers must do so online.

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