Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Tommy Langford on October 22

By Boxing News - 08/25/2016 - Comments

Image: Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Tommy Langford on October 22

By Scott Gilfoid: Just when you thought Chris Eubank Jr. (23-1, 18 KOs) couldn’t sabotage his career any more than he already had, he goes and signs for a fight against domestic level fighter Tommy Langford (17-0, 6 KOs). Eubank Jr. will be fighting the 27-year-old Langford on October 22 at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales. I am so, so disappointed in Eubank Jr. with his choice of opponent.

Langford is technically ranked #2 by the World Boxing Organization, which is a very, very high ranking considering the level of opposition he’s been fighting during his four-year pro career. I mean, I can’t recognize one name on Langford’s resume of past opponents, not one.

It’s just filled with a bunch of obscure names. It’s nice that Langford has beaten them all, but so what? Look at Langford’s last four fights and you tell me if these are quality opponents: Timo Laine, Lewis Taylor, Robert Swierzbinski and Cristian Fabian Rios.

Yeah, Eubank Jr. will be defending his British middleweight strap. I have no clue why Eubank Jr. doesn’t just bin that title and free himself up to start going after the talents in the middleweight division like Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, David Lemieux, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Tureano Johnson. Whatever the case, I can’t say I’m surprised by this move from the 26-year-old Eubank.

I think he values the British strap, and he feels this is just the place he should be with his career. It’s interesting through, because Eubank Jr. talks about wanting to fight guys like Golovkin and Billy Joe Saunders, but then he doesn’t fight them. Instead, Eubank Jr. faces guys like Nick Blackwell, Tom Doran and now Langford. What does that tell you? You can’t measure a fighter by what he says. You have to go by the type of guys they choose to face to give you a good indication of how they evaluate their own talent.

So instead of Eubank Jr. fighting the talented IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin for all his titles and for HUGE cash, he’s going to be fighting Langford. This is so, so sad. Just to think, Eubank Jr. was one of my favorite fighters in the whole world a year ago, but I don’t have my list anymore since he opted not to take the GGG fight.

It’s unclear how much cash Eubank Jr. will be getting for the Langford fight on October 22nd, but I imagine it’ nowhere near the money that he would have gotten for a fight against Golovkin or even Daniel Jacobs. I wouldn’t be surprised if the money Eubank Jr. will be getting for the Langford fight isn’t one-tenth of what he could have received if he had stepped it up and taken on Golovkin.

Yeah, Eubank Jr. would have been over his head BIG TIME against Golovkin, but so what? With all the fame and money that Eubank Jr. would have gotten for that fight, it would have been well worth it. The thing is, there’s no guarantee that Eubank Jr. will even beat Langford.

“We’ve sparred in the recent past and, though you can’t take too much into that, I know what he does well and what he doesn’t do well and believe my style exploits his,” said Langford. “Sure, Chris Jr is dangerous but Billy Joe Saunders exposed his limitations with his quality and movement. I know I’ve got the tools to beat him. I’m delighted that he’s stepped up to face me after fears he could vacate.”

The WBO has Langford ranked about these talents:

Ryota Murata

David Lemieux

Hassan N’Dam

Rob Brant

Maciej Sulecki

Andy Lee

Gabriel Rosado

Curtis Stevens

Willie Monroe Jr

In my opinion, Langford is nowhere near as good as those fighters. I mean, I don’t see anything in Langford’s past fights that tells me that he would be able to hold a candle to those fighters. I REALLY do not know what the WBO is thinking in giving Langford a No.2 ranking with their organization, but that’s neither here nor there. Heck, even if Langford wasn’t ranked in the WBO’s top five, I still think Eubank Jr. would be fighting him, because this is more about his British title than world rankings. Eubank Jr. wants to keep defending his British strap and Langford is clearly next in line for him.

Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler says he’s open to the idea of matching him against Eubank Jr. in his next fight after he takes care of welterweight Kell Brook next month on September 10. Personally speaking, I don’t want to see Golovkin fighting Eubank Jr. in his next fight after Brook. There’s no upside in a fight of that nature for Golovkin. It’s not as if Triple G will get any credit for giving Eubank Jr. a royal smashing in the ring, because the boxing world will just turn around and say, ‘So what if Golovkin beat Eubank Jr? He’s just a domestic level fighter that holds the British middleweight strap.

Let me know when GGG fights a live body that is a serious fighter in the middleweight division rather than a domestic level guy that flaps his gums about wanting to fight the best but then doesn’t do it.’ For me, I would put Eubank Jr. on permanent ignore at this point. The only way I would fight him is if he became my mandatory challenger and he was locked in by one of the sanctioning bodies as my challenger. Other than that, I wouldn’t bother trying to fight him, because I think it will only lead to frustration when the fight doesn’t happen.

Langford has looked good against the lower level fighters that he’s been facing up to this point in his career. However, Langford hasn’t fought anyone with even a slight amount of talent, and he can’t punch at all from what I’ve seen of his past fights.

Langford gets his rare knockouts by throwing a boatload of punches against really poor looking fighters that just stand there letting him have his way. I mean, I can’t imagine Langford being able to beat true contender in the middleweight division, even the bottom feeders. That’s why I don’t understand Eubank Jr’s decision to fight Langford. Actually, I do understand why Eubank Jr. is fighting Langford, because it fits with his recent trend of fighting domestic level fighters rather than TRUE contenders and not guys with an inflated ranking based off wins over cream puff opposition.