By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Frank Warren is upset with Chris Eubank Jr. (23-1, 18 KOs) after he suddenly pulled out of his defense of his British middleweight title against Warren’s fighter Tommy Langford. The two fighters were supposed to be fighting next month in October, but Eubank Jr. announced last week that he had an elbow injury and is vacating his British 160lb title.
Warren says that he had contracts signed and training expenses for Langford. He put a lot of effort into building this fight up, and now it’s all down the drain with Eubank Jr. pulling out of the fight and vacating his British strap.
“The bottom line is this fella doesn’t want to fight anyone,” said Warren about Eubank Jr. to BoxNation. “The old man [Chris Eubank Sr.] is what he is. He doesn’t want the gravy train to stop.”
The next question is what happens with the 26-year-old Eubank Jr. now. This is the second consecutive fight that Eubank Jr. has failed to take. He was previously in negotiation with IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for a fight that would have taken place in September.
Eubank Jr. would have made a great deal of money had he taken the fight against Triple G. Instead of signing the contract, Eubank Jr. didn’t meet the deadline for the contract, and the fight offer was instead given to welterweight Kell Brook, who readily agreed to it.
With this latest episode with Langford, Eubank Jr. might have hard time getting a big fight against the likes of Golovkin, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders. If the promoters of those fighters don’t know if Eubank Jr. can be counted on to sign the contract and make it into the fight, then he might mind it tough to get one of those guys to fight him.
I don’t expect the door to be closed on Eubank Jr. for good, because he’s too popular in the UK for him to be ignored completely by the big names. However, I think Eubank Jr. might need to prove himself that he can make it into the ring for him to get the fights that he wants in the future against the big names.
Eubank Jr’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport can probably get Eubank Jr. a decent name if he’s willing to risk his hide against a talented fighter like Tureano Johnson, Curtis Stevens or David Lemieux. I just don’t know if Eubank Jr. could be counted on to make it to the fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twLA1C-TKbU
From Golovkin’s stand point, it’s hard to picture him and his promoter Tom Loeffler wanting to put any more energy into a fight against Eubank Jr. It’s a fight that would create a lot of interest from the boxing world in terms of news, but I don’t see that fight happening for a long, long time if ever. It’s too bad though, because Eubank Jr. could have helped make a name for himself if he had taken the fight against Triple G.
It’s going to be interesting to see who Eubank Jr. winds up facing when he does get back inside the ring in the future. It would be sad if he chooses to go after another domestic level strap rather than looking to fight for a world title.