Eubank Jr: I’ll take Golovkin’s scalp and clean up the division

By Boxing News - 06/22/2016 - Comments

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By Dan Ambrose: Chris Eubank Jr. (22-1, 17 KOs) expects to fight IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) this year in the UK, and he feels he’s going to hand the Kazakhstan fighter his first defeat of his career. Eubank Jr. says Golovkin can’t match his talent level, and he feels he’s the better man. Eubank Jr. is confident he can take Golovkin’s power because he’s sparred with heavyweights and they couldn’t hurt him. Eubank Jr. wants to take Golovkin’s scalp and then clean up the middleweight division.

Eubank Jr. will be fighting this Saturday night against unbeaten Tom Doran (17-0, 7 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Eubank Jr. says he wants to start fighting the top world class fighters after he gets past Doran. Besides Golovkin, Eubank Jr. specifically wants Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Billy Joe Saunders and Daniel Jacobs.

Those are going to be tough fighters for Eubank Jr. to be dealing with because he’s been facing much weaker opponents during his career, and there isn’t anyone that he’s faced that is comparable to any of those fighters. If Eubank Jr. thinks wins over guys like Dmitry Chudinov, Nick Blackwell, Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan and Tom Doran mean that he can beat the best fighters at 160, then he could be kidding himself.

Eubank Jr. would be better off testing himself against Saunders before facing someone like Golovkin, because he faile the test against Saunders in their fight in 2014, and he never avenged that loss.

“After this fight, we’re looking to fight the best in the world, the Golovkins, Alvarez, Danny Jacobs, Billy Joe Saunders,” said Eubank Jr. to Secondsout.com. “As far as speed, as far as technique and defense, I believe I’m a better man inside the ring than he [Golovkin] is. Those are the areas I would go into the ring to use against him. If heavyweights can’t knock me out, then Golovkin can’t knock me out. I know he relies solely on fear factor, mentally scaring opponents before they get into the ring, and he relies on his power. I am not scared of his power. I now if he hits me with something, I’m going to hit him with three of what I’ve got. So if you do the math, how can he beat me? We’re looking to fight the No.1 middleweight in the world, and after I take that scalp, Saunders has no options but to fight me. I’ll Golovkin, do what I know I can do, and then clean up the division,” said Eubank Jr.

Eubank Jr. appears to be really selling Golovkin short by thinking he only relies on the fear factor and his punching power. There’s obviously a lot more to Golovkin’s game than just power and intimidation. He knows how to box and has great boxing skills. Golovkin has Olympic experience and had a long amateur career. In terms of amateur and pro experience, Golovkin is way ahead of Eubank Jr. There’s a reason why Golovkin is so good. He had a lot of development at an early age to get where he is today.

Eubank Jr. didn’t have the same development, and he seems to be dragging his feet about going up against the world class opponents. Eubank Jr. could have already fought Daniel Jacobs, but he instead went after the British title in facing Nick Blackwell last March. Eubank Jr. is now insisting on defending the British belt against Doran rather than giving up the belt and looking to fight the best in the division. There’s some who believe that Eubank Jr. will look to defend his British belt another two times after the Doran fight rather than taking on the best like Golovkin, Canelo, Saunders and Jacobs.

When asked about the status of the negotiations with Golovkin, Eubank Jr. said, “As far as I know, we’re very close [to getting the Golovkin fight made]. There is interest to have the fight here in the UK. As far as energy, fire, hunger, grit, and determination, he doesn’t have anything on me,” said Eubank Jr.

Eubank Jr’s promoter Eddie Hearn says he feels confident he can make the fight between Eubank Jr. and Golovkin, but he says they have to want the fight. There’s speculation that Eubank Jr. might get cold feel when he gets to the point where he can fight him. Eubank Jr. was on the verge of getting a fight against Jacobs, and then he went and fought Blackwell. Some would interpret that move as a duck by Eubank Jr.