Barker doubts Eubank Jr. can beat Golovkin

By Boxing News - 06/29/2016 - Comments

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By Patrick McHugh: Former IBF middleweight champion Darren Barker doesn’t see Chris Eubank Jr. as having the ability of shocking the world if he winds up challenging multi-160lb belt holder Gennady “GGG” Golovkin this year. Barker understands that Eubank Jr. is extremely confident of his ability, but he still doubts whether he can pull off an upset as big as this one in him facing an A-level fighter like Triple G.

Barker notes that the 26-year-old Eubank Jr. would be going from fighting domestic level opposition like he’s been doing recently to face the No. 1 middleweight in the division in GGG. Barker thinks that step up might be too big of one for Eubank Jr.

“Stepping up from the domestic level to the European level or the world level is one thing, but facing the fighter who’s probably the pound-for-pound in the world is another thing,” said Barker to skysports.com. “Gennady Golovkin has proven that he’s on top of the tree. He’s everything you want in a fighter. But like I say, Chris Eubank Jr. and Senior believe they can shock the world and cause this big upset. It remains to be seen. I can’t see it myself, but it’s definitely a fight I’ll be tuning in to watch,” said Barker.

Eubank Jr. says he has some tricks up his sleeves that he’s going to use on Golovkin o defeat him. You can speculate what those tricks will be, but it’s very likely that we’ll see Eubank Jr. fighting as he always does.

What’s hard to understand is why Eubank Jr. doesn’t want to inch his way up to a fight against Golovkin by facing some of the top middleweights that would get him acclimated to this division. Eubank Jr. could fight the likes of David Lemieux, Daniel Jacobs, Tureano Johnson, Hassan N’Dam, Jorge Sebastian Heiland, Ryata Murata, Avtandil Khurtsidze, Maciej Sulecki, Peter Quillin, Curtis Stevens, Andy Lee or Billy Joe Saunders. Eubank Jr. is leap-frogging over all of those fighters to go straight into a big fight against Golovkin, and it makes zero sense for him to do this. It just looks like Eubank Jr. is in a big rush to take the fight, as if he’s cashing out and doesn’t actually believe he can win.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym2OaX90Obo

It would be a pity if that’s the case because Eubank Jr. is too good for him to be cashing out at this point. If Eubank Jr’s father Chris Eubank Sr. is the one pushing him to take the fight against Golovkin, then he should put his foot down and tell him that it doesn’t make sense for him to take on dangerous fighter like GGG until he’s ready for the fight in the future after he has more experience under his belt.

Eubank Jr’s promoter Eddie Hearn is expected to have some news about the Golovkin-Eubank Jr. in the next day or two to announce whether the fight will be taking place or not. If it does take place, it will likely be on August 27, which is another reason it’s important that the fight get announced as soon as possible. There isn’t going to be much time to market it, and Hearn will obviously be looking to stage the fight on Sky Box Office PPV.