EXCLUSIVE: George Groves is targeting a world title fight with American star Anthony Dirrell after making a winning return to the ring at the SSE Arena in Wembley on Saturday night.

Groves beat French fighter Christopher Rebrasse on points to pick up the European super-middleweight title and is now in position for a glamour clash with WBC title holder Dirrell.

The Hammersmith-born fighter was rarely troubled by Rebrasse in a fight that went the distance, with two judges scoring the bout 118-110 and the other scoring it 117-111.

Groves, 26, is now in line for another world title shot five months on from his second defeat to Carl Froch at Wembley Stadium in May.

Groves said: “Despite what Dirrell says, Rebrasse isn’t a bum, he’s a good fighter that came into the fight with a champion mentality.

“He took a lot of punches from me, not a lot of people could withstand that, but he kept going.

“It was good to go the 12 rounds as well, he’s never been stopped and you can see why.

“It was great to be back in the ring, back here at Wembley, it’s a great arena. It was good to get back winning and putting a show on for the fans – it was a great atmosphere.

“I felt great though, I’m in great condition and I’ll be on the phone to Kalle and Nisse [Sauerland] to sort out my next fight.

“Hopefully it will be Dirrell, he says he doesn’t want to fight over here but we’ll see.

“It’s all about money and fortunately we’ve got it so hopefully we can get him over here.”

The former Dale Youth amateur would also welcome a third meeting with Froch, who was at the fight as a pundit for Sky Sports.

“I’ve got a bright future ahead of me, I know I’ll be a world champion,” said Groves.

“If Carl wants to carry on boxing and we can do the fight then I’m up for it.

“I’m willing, able and ready to knock Froch out. Hopefully I will get the chance to.”

Groves’ trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick said he was pleased with his fighter’s performance against an opponent that had never been stopped.

The Irishman said: “I would probably have said that was an eight out of 10 performance from George.

“We were asking him to do stuff that was new to him but he did it all very well. We know what he’s good at so it’s refining the other areas.

“He [Rebrasse] is a tough guy – he’s never been stopped so we knew it would be tough. It was good for George and the future is bright.”

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