By Tris Dixon

Their legacies were destined to be intertwined though it was thought for the longest time that a full-stop would have come with a retirement showdown between George Groves and James DeGale, that the bragging rights would have then been used over and over into old age.

They walk into the sunset with very different careers behind them yet their success was mirrored in many ways. Amateur rivals at the Dale Youth ABC, Groves beat DeGale in the unpaid code but it was James who went to the Beijing Olympics of 2008.

They remained on a collision course. Groves turned over under Hayemaker Promotions, with friends David Haye and Adam Booth by his side, and he did so with some fanfare, though critics believed he was too much of entertaining slugger to make a dent in the professionals, that his style was too fan-friendly for his own good. Along with Booth, he tinkered at that, worked on a seductively vicious jab and a right hand that was loaded with malice. DeGale was not so crash and bang. He was smooth, slippery and at his best could unfurl rapid-fire combinations and use dizzying footwork to incredible effect.

By the end, against Chris Eubank in the O2 last week, the footwork was gone, the combinations absent. Maybe after being shaken early he was always going to be defensive. Because the view beforehand was that depending on what he had left he would win and so the common consensus was – afterwards –  to say it turned out he didn’t have much left. That detracted from Eubank who was a handful and who will give good fighters a tear up whether they think they are on another level or not.

When DeGale won the world title for the first time he did so in memory of his old amateur rival, Ireland’s Darren Sutherland, who would have been in the mix with these two throughout the last 10 years. Sutherland won bronze in Beijing but committed suicide a year later having been tipped for big things.

For DeGale and Groves, two fighters who evoked varying emotions through their careers, the news of their final announcements was met with an almost universal approval. They both ultimately went out on defeats, Groves to Liverpudlian puncher Callum Smith and DeGale to grudge rival Eubank Jr. The timing was right, many said, even though a fight between the two would still have done well at the box office and back at the O2.

Groves leaves content in the knowledge that he may have had more in the tank while DeGale walks away with the clear school of thought that everything had caught up with him and there was nothing left. Both appear satisfied, and that is a rare commodity in a retiring boxer.

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In fact, the only man who seemed to have a cross to bear with both was Carl Froch. The Nottingham idol and former top super-middleweight fondly recalled ‘ironing out’ Groves and proclaimed that he would have ‘smashed DeGale to bits’ when asked to comment on them.

That was likely said tongue in cheek, but also safe in the knowledge that his fans would be steadfastly nodding their heads with an air of certainty that, when you consider the impressive list of British fighters who have held world titles at 168lbs, that he will rate higher than both. Why he felt the need to place a derogatory slant on their retirements when many looked for positives is as much your guess as anyone’s. It is likely because he had everything the hard way in his career and there is some sort of resentfulness in that. Perhaps DeGale, an Olympian, had what Froch might determine as an easier road to fame and fortune.

Froch was having epic world title fights that were televised on fringe PPV stations in the UK and there is, of course, no love lost with Groves, the audacious ‘kid’ who dared challenge him when Froch’s stock was at his highest and Groves, really, had not earned the right – even if the governing bodies disagreed.

That all changed in their first fight, when George showed he belonged at world level, which is where he stayed in his remaining 12 contests. His final action in a boxing ring was to go out on his shield against Smith for the recognised position of being No. 1 in the division.

DeGale had actually started his career to boos. It was an odd night in Birmingham. The fans inexplicably hated him, despite the fact he had won an Olympic gold under the Great Britain banner. It was an astonishing reaction, and you can speculate that he had come across as aloof or arrogant, wearing gold trunks and gold boxing gloves. It certainly was not the response an Olympic medallist typically provokes. And while he was marmite in his feud with Groves there was a reasonable split as to who was the ‘good guy’ and who was the ‘bad guy’ when they met in the pros in 2011.

James became familiar with the boos but as he recovered from his heart-breaking and narrow defeat to his bitter foe the jeers were gradually being converted. There was a moment when he was ringside at the O2 Arena when he appeared on the big screen over the ring and was cheered. He wondered who the ovation was for only to see his own image up there, so he stood and accepted the applause. It would be hard-earned. For as silky as DeGale was he didn’t mind a scrap, and that was sometimes to his detriment - and that may have shortened his career. There had long been talk of rough spars in Miami and that was even before he won his world title on the road against Andre Dirrell in Boston, before he defended in Canada against Lucian Bute and before he shared that bloody, gruelling but memorable draw with Badou Jack. He had made that good PBC money but while fans appreciated his work overseas it perhaps came at a cost of his brand building in the UK. Meanwhile, Groves was hopping between channels in the UK. He had appeared on Sky Sports, ITV, BT, Channel 5, Setanta and, of course, Sky Box Office for the Froch tussles and the night he won the world crown at the fourth attempt, against Fedor Chudinov. But like DeGale, he had earned his plaudits.

There was the hard learning fight with Kenny Anderson, the win over DeGale for the British and Commonwealth belts, the war with Froch, the Wembley rematch, a hard-luck split decision loss to the aforementioned Jack, Chudinov and then, near the end, victory over Eubank. There had been plenty of magical nights between them, and the debate will rage over who had the better career. 

At different times they had to come back from adversity, DeGale physically battled against a laundry list of injuries, Groves psychologically toiled having changed the life of Eduard Gutknecht after the German suffered terrible damage from their contest. Both DeGale and Groves had to return from defeat too, an acid test of championship pedigree, to win world titles.

The Indian Summer clash between the pair was never meant to be, instead they met in the spring of their careers and while their pursuits ran alongside one another they finished in a similar spot just a few weeks apart. DeGale’s retirement was 10 years to the day after turning over. For Groves, the only round numbers at the end were probably at the end of the huge ones he made with three big fights in the World Boxing Super Series.

There was no last DeGale-Groves dance but we did not need it. They were as good as each other in different ways. They should both be celebrated for different reasons. Their one-upmanship will likely go on and on but it is a case of mission accomplished for both.

And maybe one day they will shake hands and congratulate one another on a job well done.