Now, as he prepares to face Rogelio Medina in Washington, DeGale has this to say about Groves, who is trying to rebuild his career after a third successive failure to win a world title: 'George is damaged now as a fighter. The boxing public see it and I think the chance for our rematch has gone.

'His prime performance was in his first fight against Froch when he had Carl in real trouble but still could not close the show. And by the way a very good referee called Howard Foster was right to stop that fight before he got badly hurt.

'Then he suffered that huge knock out by Carl at Wembley, from which he has never fully recovered. That showed when his best chance of winning a world title came against Badou Jack here in America but he got knocked down and never looked like winning.

'I don't need to put him down. Don't want to. Our careers have now taken different trajectories.

'Me, I've kept rising to win my world title in America and defend it in Canada, both against high-class opposition. He's gone into decline.'

DeGale suspects that Groves, behind his bravura persona, must regret not accepting their rematch when it was offered. For that, he accuses the Saint of putting jealous avarice before ambition, saying: 'After I won my world title there was a million pounds on the table for him to challenge me in what would have been a big fight in England at that time.

'He turned it down because he couldn't stand the thought of me getting a bit more as the champion. He's always greedy. He is a very good salesman but when he promoted himself against Froch he made a lot of money for Carl.

'That's George. He's intelligent but sometimes a bit too clever for his own good. He's a weird character.'

Groves hopes to put down his marker for a fourth title shot when he fights another of our nearly-world champions, Martin Murray, on the undercard of Anthony Joshua's first world heavyweight title defence in June.

If the Saint finally achieved his goal, would Chunky see sense in a unification match?
'Maybe,' says DeGale. 'But only if he had a full world title. He's going for a WBA belt, which is the softest option, but probably only for what they call their 'regular' title which is not worth much. And he's not certain to beat Murray. Martin's a hard man and that is a 50-50 fight.

'After that, even If he gets past Murray and goes on to win a belt, the money will still be a problem for George. I expect to have two belts by then, which would qualify me for two-thirds of the purse. He wouldn't like that.'
The prospect of a second belt beckons in the Armory here in DC in the shape of promotional double header.

In addition to DeGale v Medina for the IBF title, Jack defends, against former champion Lucian Bute, the WBC belt he won by beating Groves.

The two winners are pledged to meet each other in a unification bout later this year.
DeGale, having beaten Bute in Canada, hopes Jack comes through, saying: 'It's not ideal to box someone you've already defeated quite comfortably. If Bute does win, then probably the only place our second fight would make financial sense would be back in his country.

'But I want my next fight to be back in England. I need to re-connect with my fans at home and Jack says he would be willing to go to London.'

Much depends on the view of Al Haymon, boxing's American Svengali. And the money.
Haymon, as advisor to scores of leading fighters, is a shadowy figure but DeGale says: 'When I first joined Al he told me he would make me rich and famous. Well, he's certainly taking care of the finances. Instead of earning two or three hundred thousand dollars-a-fight in the UK, I'm getting seven figures now.

'If that means fighting in America, so be it. But after these two fights I need a really big name.'

That might require moving up to the light-heavyweight division, where the brilliant Andre Ward has agreed to fight fearsome Russian KO artist Sergey 'Krusher' Kovalev in the autumn.

DeGale never ducks a challenge and says: 'Once I unify the super-middleweight division I should be ready for either of them. Ward is a very clever boxer but I know I have the skills to defeat him. Kovalev is powerful and dangerous and can win if he catches Ward. But I believe that with my speed I can outbox him, as well as take his punches if needs be.'

Such a move would emulate Amir Khan daring to go up more than one division for next Saturday's startling assault on world middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.

DeGale says: 'I worry that Canelo will be too strong for Amir but I admire him for doing it. Like me, he is prepared to take on anyone. And his speed gives him a chance, if he can avoid getting caught by big shots for the full 12 rounds.'

The alternative for DeGale would be to try to trim down to middleweight for the biggest box office fight of all, against the phenomenal Gennady Golovkin.

'Getting to that poundage would be hard for me,' says DeGale. 'I'm 30 now and as you get a bit older it's difficult to change your body. But it would be a great fight. He may want to come up to super-middle once he's beaten all the middleweights and I would love that fight. He knocks everyone out but he doesn't scare me.'

Chunky expects to be the one inflicting the KO in DC. He says: 'Medina's a typically tough Mexican but I should take him out fairly early.'

His self-confidence sometimes borders on the brash and can jar on the British public. But in distant America, southpaw James DeGale is establishing himself as a genuinely world class boxer.