By Cliff Rold

What’s the old saying? The one where it says it’s about the journey, not the destination?

Yeah, well, it sort of depends on where one ends up. Millions of people who read Stephen King’s Dark Tower series are still grumbling about the final destination there. Anyone who ever went on a family vacation in a car full of siblings and cousins is probably still scarred by wondering when the agony of the ride to wherever would end.

The journey and not the destination can be an optimist’s way of handling disappointment.

In boxing, destinations can often be a mirage, fitting for a sport that so often hosts big fights in the desert. Rarely do we get straight-line journeys but some are shorter than others. From Sugar Ray Leonard’s rematch win over Roberto Duran to his career-defining win over Thomas Hearns was a journey of ten months and two additional fights.

That was a case where both journey and destination were fun stuff.

We waited five years for Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. The journey was too long. We never got to see them against each other at the height of their powers, arriving at a solid but unspectacular affair.

In boxing, the journey feels most worth it if we arrive where we’re going in a timely fashion. Case in point, this weekend’s Showtime doubleheader (10 PM EST/PST).

Grumblings started last year that a unification showdown could be a possibility between super middleweight titlists James DeGale (22-1, 14 KO) and Badou Jack (20-1-1, 12 KO). Both men are in action this weekend.

They won’t be fighting each other.

That’s okay. If all goes well, DeGale-Jack could very well be next. Both in their primes, and on a roll, it would be the first major showdown in the division after the last of the “Super Six” battlers lost a title in the class when Arthur Abraham lost his WBO belt to Gilberto Ramirez.

DeGale-Jack would be an excellent fight and a fresh start. Of course we have to get their first. Both men will be favored this weekend but they aren’t in gimme’ fights. That’s what makes this weekend fun. There is danger in the air but it doesn’t feel like sleight of hand. It doesn’t feel like they are fighting other men to milk the public before announcing a series of other fights without each other.

This is the old fashioned card to build a showdown. That’s fun. Both men have more to lose than their titles. They could lose each other and a bigger payday.

And it’s being done in one of boxing’s most tried fashions: by way of comparison-shopping.

DeGale will defend his IBF title against Rogelio Medina (36-6, 30 KO). Medina is 5-1 in his last six fights, including an upset knockout of J’Leon Love. His lone loss in that stretch, to undefeated Jonathan Gonzalez, was a questionable call. He doesn’t have a big chance here but he has at least a puncher’s chance and Medina hasn’t had a clear loss since December 2016.

That loss? It came against Jack. Jack stopped Medina in six, just one fight before the lone blemish on his ledger.

After a first round stoppage loss to Derek Edwards, Jack was considered sent to the also ran pile by generally everyone. It turned out that sometimes an early loss is just that. In 2015, Jack had one of the best years of any active fighter, upsetting Anthony Dirrell for the WBC belt and then challenger George Groves.

One good resurrection story meets another when Jack faces Lucian Bute (32-3, 25 KO) on Saturday. Bute hadn’t looked the same, even very good, since being hammered by Carl Froch in 2012. The best super middleweight who wasn’t in the “Super Six” was suddenly the ‘exposed’ guy who never would have cut it in that field. A loss to Jean Pascal, where Bute had only a late closing effort to hang his hat on after losing badly most of the night, seemed his end.

Late last year, he showed that maybe the late rally against Pascal woke something up. Bute didn’t win but he gave a hell of an effort and made a terrific fight.

That fight came against…James DeGale.

Now, Bute has a chance to maybe put himself in the running for a rematch and another crack at DeGale. It’s not inconceivable based on his last outing. It’s what makes this a fun main event. Jack probably wins, but it’s no guarantee.

DeGale will try to top what Jack did against Medina. Jack will try to show himself more the master of Bute. If it all works out, it will be proper fodder for a unification match in the fall.

If the destination ends up being DeGale-Jack, and we get a hell of a fight, then no, the journey won’t surpass the destination.

But at least we might get more than a road stop along the way and it doesn’t look like we’ll be stuck in the car for too long.        

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com