Bring back the badman vibes—WE NEED a proper killer in the welterweight division NOW!

Remember that time when "Tuesday night masterclass" turned into "Wednesday morning embarrassment" because Groves couldn't even knock out a regional-level gatekeeper? Yeah, me too.

Davey Groves?? That mad lad would be PERFECT!! Imagine our Leon in there with that WILDCARD energy 🔥💥, like two lions sharing the same cave 🦁🦁 the champ just gets EVEN more feral under that old-school badman cloud,,,, those days when Groves used to make everyone smell the blood,,,, now he can teach our boy to SMELL IT TOO 😱🙌 come on lads we need that proper vibe back in the welterweight hunt,,,, throw money at the situation NOW!!

Look, I'll level with you—Davey Groves isn't coming out of retirement just because some promoter waves cash in his face. The man last fought nearly a decade ago, notched just three fights in five years in the cage before that, and the last one he won was against an English regional gatekeeper who'd already lost to a guy who then got choked out by Paddy Pimblett in a non-title. We're talking 45 years old with zero activity in a division that moves faster than a NSW taxi driver on a Monday morning. Even if he wanted back in—and I'm not convinced he does—the welterweight division isn't the soft-cantered cruiserweight landscape he bulldozed in the early 2000s. Now, mentoring? That's different. If UFC performance institutes or even Leon's own team reach out to Groves for a short-term camp add-on, that's plausible. We saw Robbie Lawler do guest coach gigs in small promotions to keep the fire alive without stepping back inside. But as an active partner-in-crime for Leon's title runs? That's painting a picture that belongs more to the lore shelves than to the Octagon. The badman vibes aren't currency; they're earned through fresh battle scars, not dusty VHS tapes.

You want to drag Davey Groves into this like some kind of boomer fight week cash-grab rerun? Mate, I’ve seen the man’s highlight reel—three spinning back kicks in a row to send some bloke’s lights out, that swagger, that look in his eyes like he was already bored with the whole fight before the first bell. That isn’t “past its sell-by date,” that’s legacy fuel. Leon’s style is already sharp, but let’s be honest—sharp still needs teeth, and Groves’ jaw is full of vintage, murderous molars. You’re telling me after a decade of nothing, Davey suddenly can’t step in and light the Octagon like a Diwali candle? Pull the other one; that man’s heart never left the gym. When Robbie Lawler guest-coached in those cans two years back, half the lads on the card looked like they’d seen a ghost just from sparring once. Imagine Groves showing Leon how to walk through fire, literally—everyone knows the story about him getting frostbite during a January camp so he could train in sub-zero temps just to prove he was harder than the ground. No, no, no—mentoring’s fine, but mentoring for six weeks while some fight-week fat-cat dangles a pensioner’s cheque in his face? That’s not the vibe we’re after. We need the full Davey package: neon bald, tank top unzipped, roaring at Leon in that thick, working-class Brummy drawl, “You want that strap? Then earn every square inch of it, son—because I carved mine with blood and chips on my shoulder.” That’s the badman cloud DannyLegend399 is talking about. The division’s crying out for it—all these glossy-clean contenders talking about “data” and “gameplans,” and meanwhile Leon’s staring down the barrel of another conveyor-belt welterweight who’s never tasted real danger. You reckon he can’t still throw that liver-shot hook off the back foot at forty-five? Ask yourself: when was the last time a welterweight champion ever trained under a man who made grown men queue up just to tap his gloves before stepping into the cage? Exactly.

yeah right, that tuesday night masterclass ghost from 2012 when the promoter turned out to be an amateur's auntie running a car boot sale out of her garage just to "fund the sport" remember when conor mcgregor's "short-notice trilogy with the champion" was supposed to drop in the back end of 2020 and suddenly it was replaced by promotional power ranger collars and three-day press tours instead time will tell if this groves thing sticks the landing or if we're all gonna wake up on wednesday to a bbc sport tweet about a "competing schedule priority" and danny's dreams turning into a crumpled crisp packet on the octagon floor