SOPHIE GROVES enters the ballroom at the Copthorne Tara Hotel in Kensington, approaches her husband George, and is warmly greeted by Carl Froch making a beeline towards her in the fashion of someone reacquainting themselves with an old friend. “Who’s got the kids?” he asks.
The two retired fighters had arrived together with Carl’s older brother Lee, having met earlier in the day to record Groves’ podcast, and had already vented about Matt Hancock’s lucrative venture into reality TV by the time she had joined them. She and Lee are similarly friendly; so much so it seems unlikely Lee would have attempted to pull his brother’s underwear down as he had minutes earlier if she had been by her husband’s side when he did.
The unlikeliest of groups have been reunited for the seventh of eight dates of the second iteration of An Evening With Carl Froch and George Groves, and Sophie has showed up just in time to hear the two brothers indulge in a conspiracy theory and then Froch recommend to Boxing News, via Spotify, David Brent’s album Life On the Road, a Netflix documentary, and then revisit a scene from one of his “favourite films”, Liar, Liar.
When Froch and Groves make their way to the colorama in preparation for the arrival of those who have bought a ticket to see the pair speak and have their photo taken with them, Lee starts to tell Sophie about his hard-earned sobriety. While they wait, the once bitterest of rivals remain occupied by
