Carl Froch vs. George Groves, billed as the Battle of Britain, was a professional boxing match contested on 23 November 2013 at the Manchester Arena.

Carl Froch began 2013 by successfully defending his IBF super-middleweight title against WBA (Regular) champion Mikkel Kessler on 25 May, which was a rematch of their first fight on 24 April 2010, at the time part of the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament.

His preference was a third fight with Kessler, based on the resounding critical success of the second,[3] as well as a rematch with former Super Six rival Andre Ward, who defeated Froch in the tournament final on 17 December 2011.

This drew furious criticism from Froch a week before that fight, who branded Groves a traitor for helping out his Danish opponent and not staying loyal to his countryman.

[14] Throughout the latter half of the year, Froch and Groves engaged in an intense war of words, rife with trash-talk, in a rivalry likened to that of Nigel Benn vs. Chris Eubank in the early 1990s.

In Groves' training camp, preparations hit a major stumbling block when he and trainer Adam Booth split acrimoniously in September.

[19] At the weigh-in on 22 November, which culminated in both boxers having to be pulled apart by security and personnel, Froch was highly animated during the customary staredown as he taunted an "uncharacteristically quiet" Groves.

Groves responded by catching him with a quick, hard overhand right which knocked down Froch for only the second time in his career (the first being against Jermain Taylor in their 2009 fight).

The ensuing rounds saw Groves—who was eleven years younger than Froch—outboxing him and consistently landing clean punches, as the prospect of a major upset was brewing.

In round six, both boxers exchanged heavy punches with the harder-hitting Froch focusing on body shots, while the quicker-handed Groves targeted the head.

More of the same followed in the seventh and eighth rounds, but one reporter noted that referee Howard Foster was intervening too often with the action when it appeared that Groves was running out of steam.