George Groves has laughed off suggestions that he is a traitor for sparring Mikkel Kessler ahead of Saturday's super middleweight unification bout with Carl Froch.
The 'Cobra' accused the 'Saint' of turning his back on Britain by helping the Dane prepare for their rematch at the O2 Arena.
"Traitor's a tough word to use," Groves told Sky Sports News. "So he's the King is he and I'm traitorous against his throne?
"At the end of the day I was preparing for a fight so I needed some good quality sparring, Carl didn't offer me any but Mikkel did. It was a great opportunity to go out there and spar with a guy who is a world champion at my weight preparing for a fight at the same date.
"It's priceless sparring that I couldn't possibly turn down. There's lots of needle going around, but Carl knows the last time we sparred was before the first Kessler fight and it didn't do him any favours, so maybe I've gone out there and softened Mikkel up for him so maybe he should be thanking me."
Groves takes on Noe Gonzalez Alcoba on the undercard and hopes that victory will take him a step closer to a fight against the winner between Froch and Kessler.
"You've got the IBF and WBA titles on the line," he added.
"I'm number two with the WBA so I'm very close to being the mandatory for that belt so that could mean I could fight the winner of these two, because the winner's going to come out with two more titles than I've got which is what I want.
"But I need to go out and do the business on Saturday night, I know how good this guy is so I need to go out and not only win but win well and force these guys' hands."
The 25-year-old is unbeaten in 18 professional outings, winning the British and Commonwealth titles in the process.
