Win or lose at Wembley, George Groves has scored one knockout already by battering promoter Eddie Hearn into submission.

In a world where championship boxers have bigger retinues than medieval kings, St George of Hammersmith took delight in negotiating his own purse, somewhere around £2 million, that set up a rematch with Carl Froch and two super-middleweight world crowns.

Most top sportsmen, never mind boxers, run a mile from bare-knuckle haggling - but the 26-year-old brought up in King Street thrives on it.

In fact, Groves revealed he was sending ‘ballsy’ texts on Christmas morning demanding a fair slice of fight cake.

His team take care of everything else; the former Dale Youth boxer demands he and he alone gets shown the money.

“When it comes to self managing - it’s only about how much I’m going to get paid,” he said.

“You’ve got it or you haven’t. I sent some ballsy text messages, with my wife saying: ‘you can’t say that!’

“But I got texts back from Barry Hearn 10am Christmas morning, and I think I played my cards pretty well. I got if for more money than anyone would give me credit for and on terms that I wanted.

“I don’t think everyone’s comfortable with this, but I couldn’t get on stage and sing and dance.”

High hopes: George Groves at Westfield

Groves hopes it’s the blueprint for young boxers coming after him. After all, the fight game cliche always has a sucker waiting to get ripped off.

“I would say to these sort of boxers, don’t be frightened to ask questions like, there are 80,000 people here and they’re all roughly paying £80 each that generates £5m - why am I only being paid this much?”

The west Londoner is slight underdog at 13/10 with champion Froch 4/6, but it’s a far cry from their first meeting in November.

That was before Groves floored the champ in the first round, and was ahead on points before the referee stepped in controversially in the ninth round to the delight of a weary Froch.

With calculator in hand at Westfield Shopping Centre this week, Groves claimed the odds are about to get upset.

He said: “I was the heavy underdog last time; and I don’t think the bookies want to be in that position again.

“He’s still the champion, but if I was a gambling man I wouldn’t back Carl Froch. I’m not, by the way, even if I am going to Vegas next week, but only for the shows and the burgers.

“I don’t think it’s going to be 12 rounds; maybe three, Paddy (Fitzpatrick, trainer) says four or five, but we can go the whole distance - and longer.”

Ready for battle: George Groves