Shane McGuigan and George Groves are in the spotlight

The super-middleweight ditched Paddy Fitzpatrick after last year’s unsuccessful world title fight with Badou Jack to work with the third trainer of his professional career. McGuigan’s profile has significantly grown having trained David Haye and Groves since January.

Beyond his work with the undefeated Carl Frampton, however, he remains relatively unproven given Groves and Haye had been such favourites for the fights he had overseen before this weekend.

Murray - who has lost on each of the four times he has fought for a world title, once more than Groves - represents Groves’ toughest fight since the Jack defeat last September. The winner can be expected to progress towards their latest challenge for a world title, leaving the loser’s career needing to be rebuilt.

Asked if Saturday’s date at London’s 02 Arena is the time McGuigan’s work can be judged, Groves responded: “Yeah. Martin Murray’s of that level: a real good performance from me this weekend will show that we are doing things correctly, that we’re on the right track.

“There’ll be more spotlight (on my partnership with McGuigan) because this is the fight that people can look forward to. They know both of the fighters, there’ll be a lot of sing and dance in the build-up.

“If Klitschko-Fury wasn’t two weeks later, me and Martin Murray would have been fighting on a stand alone show.

“There’s definitely less pressure on my shoulders (since joining McGuigan). I’ve supreme confidence in Shane to get me prepared for fights. He’s got a real good grasp of and experience of the business.

“I know he understands about gloves, and all the little bits and pieces that can go under the radar and you don’t necessarily want to be worrying about as a fighter. I’ve a good trainer now, who’s trained at the highest level.”