On this day in 2010, British super-middleweight George Groves was given the opportunity to compete in his first encounter in the United States after coming through his first nine fights as a professional.
After making his debut in front of his home crowd at the O2 Arena, Groves encountered few problems in his opening bouts in the paid ranks before he captured the Commonwealth title against Charles Adamu on the undercard of David Haye's WBA heavyweight title clash against John Ruiz.
Winning a recognised belt on the big stage was a beneficial experience for the Londoner while he was still making his way in the sport, but his development was sent in a different direction in the summer of that year when he was paired with Alfredo Contreras in Las Vegas.
The Mexican held a record of 12 wins from 20 matches, but despite his less-than-stellar record, it was a step up for Groves who needed to show that he was mentally prepared for new challenges and was required to impress the American crowd that was slowly building in the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.
The Brit started the first round sharply, but that was undone when he was caught, perhaps due to naivety, by an overhead right hand from Contreras that momentarily rocked him back, but he recovered to end the round on a positive note, landing a left-right combination and a straight right.
After an even second stanza, Groves begin to find his rhythm by bringing his left jab into play, and after he had kept Contreras at range with a thudding overhead right, he controlled the remainder of the round after putting flurries of punches together to show his class.
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Both fighters began the fourth round somewhat tentatively, but Groves exploded into life with a huge right hand, although it was well taken by his opponent. That hit appeared to discourage Contreras but as Groves loaded up with more shots, he fired back at the Londoner in a couple of brutal exchanges as they neared the bell.
The fifth round was dominated by Groves, and the path of that three minutes resulted in the referee warning Contreras that he needed to show something at the start of the sixth to remain active in the fight, but less than a minute into the round, the fight was stopped.
Groves soon established authority with a couple of left hooks and once he landed a hard left-right combination, the referee, perhaps prematurely, brought the bout to a halt, despite Contreras not looking in trouble and protesting to the official as he walked back to his corner.
However, even if Contreras had survived on that occasion, it appeared only a matter of time before Groves ended the encounter, and in doing so, he registered his 10th successive win to press on with what seemed to be developing into a promising career.
The 12 months following the fight saw Groves battle past Kenny Anderson and domestic rival James DeGale, but his attempts to become world champion have, so far, failed after back-to-back defeats against IBF and WBA titlist Carl Froch.
