By Scott Gilfoid: IBO super middleweight champion Renold Quinlan (11-1, 7 KOs) plans on knocking out Chris Eubank Jr. (23-1, 18 KOs) in their fight on February 4 in London, England. While the 27-year-old Quinlan isn’t viewed by the boxing world as a knockout artist, he feels he’s got enough power to do the job on Eubank Jr. This isn’t Eubank Jr’s division.
Eubank Jr. normally fights at middleweight. He and his father decided to have him move up to 168 to capture what they consider a world title with the IBO belt. Eubank Jr. wants to use that strap to get bigger fights against the champions in the division.
As such, Eubank Jr. would be eligible to fight in unification fights; although I don’t know if champions like James DeGale, Gilberto Ramirez and Badou Jack are eager to get their hands on the IBO belt. If they choose to fight Eubank Jr, they’d be doing it more so because of him being fairly popular in the UK, and quite beatable.
“From what I’ve been told not many people like Eubank and, if that’s the case, I hope you all come to witness me knock him out,” said Quinlan to espn.com. “This is going to be an absolute war. I expect to stop him late in the fight. He has never faced anyone like me and he will feel it from my first punch.”
The 27-year-old Eubank Jr. took a lot of criticism recently when he passed up the opportunity to fight IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin on September 10 in a fight that would have made him a lot of money on Sky Box Office PPV. Eubank Jr. and his father Chris Eubank didn’t agree fast enough to the deal offered to them for the fight.
Kell Brook was offered the same deal and he accepted it. The rest is history. Golovkin broke Brook’s eye socket early in the fight, causing him to run around the ring for 5 rounds until his trainer Dominic Ingle threw in the towel to save him. It was not a great fight to watch unless you like to see running, and poor scoring of a one-sided fight.
Eubank Jr. has won his last five fights against weak opposition since his 12 round split decision loss to Billy Joe Saunders three years ago in 2014. Eubank Jr. has beaten these little known fighters since then: Tony Jeter, Dmitri Chudinov, Tom Doran, Gary O’Sullivan and Nick Blackwell. With Eubank Jr. about to turn 28, it’s unclear why he’s still facing fodder opposition. He had the chance to fight Golokvin, as well as Daniel Jacobs for their titles.
Instead, Eubank Jr. has opted to face Blackwell, Doran, O’Sullivan, Chudinov and Jeter.
Eubank Jr’s choice of Quinlan for his next fight is equally mind-boggling, because Quinlan is not a well-known fighter. He’s not the type of guy that will turn Eubank Jr. into a star overnight. Indeed, it’s kind of a lateral move from Eubank Jr’s recent mismatches against Blackwell and Doran. Instead of rising up to another level to challenge himself and increase his star power, Eubank Jr. is continuing with facing lower level guys.
Quinlan has already been beaten in the pro ranks by Australian fighter Jake Carr (11-1, 4 KOs). Quinlan’s claim to fame was his recent 2nd round knockout win over 35-year-old Aussie Daniel Geale last October. Geale was a good – but limited – fighter four years ago, but by the time that Quinlan got to him, he was a mere shadow of his former self. Geale’s losses to Miguel Cotto, Gennady Golovkin and Darren Barker reflected how much he’d gone downhill. I don’t think Geale would have stood a chance against Cotto and Golovkin in his prime, but I do think he would have beaten Barker.
“I know Eubank is tough but my plan is to fight my own fight and take him into deep water. Most of his wins have come by stoppage. I’ve never been stopped before so he can forget about that.”
Quinlan looks like a pretty mediocre fighter to me. If Eubank Jr. can’t beat this guy, then he needs to seriously think about retiring because he’ll never beat the best super middleweights in the division. Heck, Eubank Jr. will probably never beat the best fighters in the division anyway. He’s not cut out for the 168lb division. The sooner he realizes that the better. I think Quinlan will Eubank Jr. enough problems in this fight to make him realize that he needs to go back down to the 160lb division. Gilfoid does understand why Eubank Jr. might want to at least try and make something happen in the super middleweight division. With Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs and Saul Canelo Alvarez representing the best in the division, Eubank Jr. is likely not going to be able to find a spot for himself for a number of years if ever.
With the talented Jermall Charlo about to move up in weight to fight at 160, I honestly don’t see Eubank Jr. ever finding a niche for himself to be a champion. Heck, even when Golovkin steps down as a fighter, Jermall Charlo will step right in and start in where Golovkin left off as the best fighter in the division. Eubank Jr. has good boxing skills, I admit. I just don’t think Eubank Jr. can compete against talents like Charlo, Canelo and Jacobs.
Eubank Jr. should have stayed with Eddie Hearn and his Matchroom stable of fighters. That was a good situation Eubank Jr. had with Hearn. If he could have taken the Golovkin fight, and tried his best, then maybe his stock would have soared like Kell Brook’s. Personally, I don’t think Brook’s stock rose with his loss to Golovkin, but a lot of boxing fans seem to think so. Eubank Jr. should have stayed with Hearn and let him promote his career. He’d be much better off with Hearn than fighting little known guys like Quinlan for his IBO title in my view.
There’s a good chance that Eubank Jr. could struggle enough against Quinlan to wind up looking bad in this fight. Eubank Jr. isn’t a great fighter. When you take a flawed fighter like him and put him in with a decent guy from a division above him, it’s a recipe for disaster.