Do the Eubank’s really want Golovkin?

By Gavin Duthie - 06/27/2016 - Comments

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By Gav Duthie: “Gennady Golovkin I’m coming for you”, the message from Chris Eubank Jnr post fight on Saturday was clear and concise. Promoter Eddie Hearn has said if they want the fight its there. GGG doesn’t seem to be a hard man to deal with and Eubank Jnr is ranked #1 with the WBA so this should be easy right? The problem is nothing is ever easy when Eubank Snr a.k.a English is involved. He is the middle man that we don’t need in this scenario, he is the guy who eccentric personality would delude him into making his son the A-list fighter and he never fought any of the number 1 fighters in the 90s in his division unless they were British.

Unpredictable career so far

Despite only being the British champion and relatively unknown outside the UK Eubank Jnr’s career has been hard to predict. He started it surprisingly on terrestrial TV on Channel 5 with Mick Hennessey and has linked up with Frank Warren and Box Nation and now twice with Eddie Hearn. It is far from inconceivable that he could jump ship again if it suits the Eubank’s fancy. He probably faced Billy Joe Saunders a bit too early in his career without having any real big fights up to that point but when he then defeated Chudinov to become mandatory challenger in the WBA, rather than face regular champion Daniel Jacobs he stepped back to British level to face Gary O’ Sullivan, Nick Blackwell and Tom Doran. As a result I CAN see him fighting Golovkin but I can just as easy see him fighting John Ryder, Adam Etches or Anthony Agogo in defence of his British title.

Snr track record

In delving into the past career of the father it doesn’t bode well. Eubank Snr’s career was impressive no doubt. He was a two weight world champion, both WBO at middleweight and super middleweight. He was ranked with the top 5 of either division between 1991 and 1995 before he lost to Steve Collins. The troubling information though was that he was never close to fighting the top fighter at any time. His main British rivals Nigel Benn fought Iran Barkley and Gerald McClellan with Michael Watson fighting Mike McCallum. Eubank however never faced any of the top guys unless they were British. In 91 and 92 Michael Nunn was number 1 in the middleweight division, in 93 James Toney was top in the super middleweight division and Roy Jones in 1994. Eubank was never really close to any of these fights. Whether it was due to money or promoters I’m not sure and of course the son is not the father but Eubank Snr has such influence over his son it makes me worry for the fight.

For now we just sit back and see what happens but my initial thought is that Golovkin will not be his next fight.