Still, DeGale, 25 at the time, brushed himself down and carried on. With no option but to accept it, he grudgingly gave Groves his spot in the queue, watched him fight for a world title before he did, and then, in 2014, boxed at Wembley Stadium as 80,000 fans started taking their seats to watch Groves fight Carl Froch in a huge rematch. Appearing only on the undercard that night, DeGale had no greater reminder of where he stood in the food chain and how he and Groves had taken separate paths since their 2011 encounter. Now DeGale was doing his work – good work, mind you – in the shadow of his old rival and was hoping that by impressively beating Brandon Gonzales he would earn a shot at the winner of Froch vs. Groves in the future. Groves, meanwhile, would see DeGale and Gonzales appear on the television monitor in his changing room while warming up and ask for it to be turned off. “I don’t need to be watching that,” he said as he shadowboxed.