By Keith Idec

George Groves is the only fighter to defeat James DeGale since DeGale won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Badou Jack is one of only two opponents to beat Groves during Groves’ professional career. Neither DeGale nor Jack appears to have placed too much emphasis on those opposite results in closely contested meetings as they head toward their 12-round super middleweight championship unification fight Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“Styles make fights,” Jack said during a recent conference call. “And I think that was like five, six years ago since they fought. So you can’t really compare it and that was a close fight. I haven’t really [watched the Groves-DeGale] fight like that, but a lot of people have said that it could’ve gone either way. James could have won the fight, so no, not really, it’s me and him right now. So whatever happened, it don’t matter.”

Groves defeated DeGale (23-1, 14 KOs) by majority decision when the London natives fought in May 2011 at O2 Arena in London. Four years later, after Groves lost back-to-back bouts to England’s Carl Froch by technical knockout, Sweden’s Jack (20-1-2, 12 KOs) dropped Groves (25-3, 18 KOs) in the first round and beat him by split decision in a 12-round bout at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

“[Against] George Groves, I was a nine-fight novice,” said DeGale, who was 10-0 when he fought Groves. “I was a nine-fight novice. I was immature. I was young. I was inexperienced. I was terrible. It was all wrong. And it was still a close fight. I should have won that fight. Badou Jack boxed well in that fight [against Groves], and once again that was a close fight with him. Like literally very close, because it could’ve gone either way. And he won.”

The DeGale-Jack battle will be the main event of a “Showtime Championship Boxing” telecast Saturday night. It’ll begin at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT with an IBF featherweight championship match between title-holder Jose Pedraza (22-0, 12 KOs), of Cidra, Puerto Rico, and Baltimore’s Gervonta Davis (16-0, 15 KOs).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.