George Groves world champion after stopping Fedor Chudinov

In front of around 27,000 raucous fans in Sheffield, Groves put his three defeats in world title bouts behind him by stopping his Russian foe midway through the sixth round to capture the vacant WBA super-middleweight crown.

The 29-year-old struggled initially to contain his opponent and an accidental clash of heads in the fourth round left him with a cut over his left eye, but the Londoner rallied and a furious barrage forced referee Steve Gray to halt the contest just before the scheduled halfway point.

Two defeats to Carl Froch - the second in front of 80,000 at Wembley - and one to Badou Jack, had left Groves' career in tatters.

In the wake of the Jack loss in Las Vegas in September 2015, Groves split with trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick and linked up with Shane McGuigan, under whom he claimed four straight wins to put himself into world title contention once more.

His last victory against Eduard Gutknecht came at a cost after the German-based Kazakh collapsed after the fight and spent six weeks in a coma after surgery to relieve swelling on the brain. He is still unable to walk or speak seven months on.

Groves has spoken of how Gutknecht's family have absolved him of blame and, while he will never forget the traumatic incident, expressed the hope that he would be able to focus on the job at hand while in the ring.

Against an opponent who had only been beaten once before, Groves made a frenetic start, attempting to establish a pattern with his trademark jab, but Chudinov landed an overhand right that sent the Londoner back towards the ropes.

It was a position Groves familiarised himself with for much of the next two rounds as Chudinov claimed the centre of the ring, relentlessly stalking his opponent - although not landing anything of serious note.

Groves found his range in the fourth, planting a straight punch which seemed to momentarily buzz Chudinov, but an accidental clash of heads opened up a nasty cut over his left eye.

Groves remained the busier fighter in the fifth round and then closed the show superbly in the sixth, a right hook starting the damage before raining down the punches on an increasingly dazed Chudinov.

To his credit, Chudinov remained on his feet but it was all one-way traffic, forcing referee Gray to step in and bring the bout to a halt to the delight of the home support.