Super middleweight contender George Groves admitted he did not look good in struggling to a seventh-round knockout of Denis Douglin on Saturday in Liverpool, England, on the Nathan Cleverly-Tony Bellew II undercard.

Groves got bruised and cut on the bridge of his nose, and had his hands full until dropping Douglin with two powerful right hands to force the stoppage. In fact, after the fight, Groves (21-2, 16 KOs) gave himself a 5 on a scale of 1-10 in what was a stay-busy fight.

Groves is the mandatory challenger for world titleholder Anthony Dirrell, but that fight is several months away at the earliest, so Groves decided to remain active. He said he was troubled by Douglin’s southpaw style.

“Fighting a southpaw was different and was what I needed,” Groves said. “He was a good fighter, he was good inside and I didn't want to scrap with him inside. Good to get another stoppage and it’s on to the big one now. I want to take the quickest route to a world title and that's the Dirrell fight. I want to be a world champion and bring a world title belt to Britain. I'll be a world champion next year.”

Groves had had two opportunities already, both against British countryman and unified titleholder Carl Froch. In their first fight in November 2013, Froch scored a highly controversial ninth-round knockout in a fight he was losing. In the May rematch, Froch scored a clean eight-round knockout.

Groves has won two fights since, but Froch, who was ringside Saturday working on the Sky Sports pay-per-view, was not impressed by his rival and dogged him about his performance.

“I think he's been Cobra'd. It’s the same with Lucian Bute,” said Froch, who is nicknamed the “Cobra” and also knocked out Bute, who has not been the same since. “(Groves) was in there struggling with a light middleweight. He was getting caught by shots that at world level would knock him out.”

Groves would love a third shot at Froch (33-2, 24 KOs). James DeGale (20-1, 14 KOs), another British contender, who lost a majority decision to Groves in 2011 and also won on Saturday’s card, is one of Froch’s mandatory challengers.

“Let DeGale and Groves fight each other and maybe I will fight the winner, but it's a mismatch,” Froch said. “DeGale beats Groves every day of the week.”