Stevens: Eubank Jr. was scared of GGG

By Boxing News - 07/20/2016 - Comments

Image: Stevens: Eubank Jr. was scared of GGG

By Scott Gilfoid: Former world title challenger Curtis Stevens (28-5, 21 KOs) is reportedly open to a fight against #2 WBA, #2 WBC Chris Eubank Jr. (23-1, 18 KOs) if he’s game. Stevens wasn’t too impressed with the way that Eubank Jr. talked up a fight against middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin recently but then failed to take the fight. Stevens, 31, thinks Eubank Jr. was scared to take the fight with Golovkin. After wasting his time and Golovkin’s time, Eubank Jr. failed to sign the contract to make the fight happen.

Stevens is impressed with Brook, because he sees him as a slick fighter with a lot of talent.
“Kell Brook is an excellent fighter,” said Stevens to skysports.com. “Gennady, Eubank Jr was scared to fight him, no one wants to fight him, so they made that fight happen.”

Stevens, #7 WBC, #9 IBF, #12 WBA, #12 WBO, would be the perfect fight for Eubank Jr. to take for his next fight. Instead of Eubank Jr. fighting one of the domestic level opponents in defending his British title, it would be great to see him step up to the plate and fight a highly ranked guy like Stevens. The 5’11” Eubank Jr. would have a four inch height advantage over the 5’7” Stevenson, but that doesn’t mean that he would be able to get through the fight without getting tagged hard.

Stevens would be on him and looking to KO him with every punch he threw. It would be a much different experience for Eubank Jr. than the ones he’s had facing the likes of Tom Doran and Nick Blackwell. Those are guys that Eubank Jr. should have never been fighting at this advanced stage in his pro career.

It’s hard to know what Eubank Jr. was thinking in facing those guys. Blackwell got hurt against him in a career ending fight. It’s just weird that Eubank Jr. would take his career backwards like that because that’s something you don’t see a lot when fighters become the mandatory challenger for a world champion like Eubank Jr. did after beating Gary O’Sullivan last year in a WBA title eliminator.

“It’s obviously a fight that the fans want to see and it will be very exciting to see what happens in the fight, because Kell Brook is slick,” said Stevens.

The Golovkin vs. Brook fight will be exciting for as long as it lasts. I’m just not sure that it’s going to last very long. As far as what Stevens says about Brook being slick, I think he’s probably referring to the clinching that Brook likes to do. That’s the only think that’s slick about his fighting style, and the holding he does is excessive. It’s not survival oriented holding. It’s holding that a fighter uses when he’s trying to shut down an opponent’s offensive. The referee is supposed to do something about that kind of holding.