By Scott Gilfoid: Interim WBA middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. (19-1, 14 KOs) says he wants to fight IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs). The 26-year-old Eubank Jr. says he wants to win world titles at both 160 and 168, and he doesn’t see why he shouldn’t go after the likes of Golovkin.
Eubank Jr. says he wants to fight the best in both divisions, and he thinks that within two years he can have all the world titles in both the middleweight and super middleweight divisions.
Eubank Jr. hasn’t fought in seven months since beating Russian Dmitry Chudinov by a 12th round knockout last February. Eubank Jr. signed with Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn last Friday, and he’s already been added to the Kell Brook vs. Diego Chaves undercard on October 24th at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK, as well as the Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte undercard on December 12th at the O2 Arena in London.
Hearn hasn’t named Eubank Jr’s next opponent for 10/24, but he’s saying it’s going to be a fairly big name. My spider senses tells me it’s going to be fighter that has a lot of mileage on him who is over-the-hill, or a fringe contender in the 160lb division.
@ChrisEubankJr will return to the ring on October 24 #WBAboxing pic.twitter.com/7i3NOpYeC9
— WBA (@WBABoxing) September 25, 2015
“[Golovkin] Bring him on. People see him as the best fighter in the middleweight division, and me, the type of fighter I am,” Eubank Jr. said to Fighthype.com. “I want to fight the best,” he said. “I want to prove that I can mix it with these guys. Anybody in the middleweight division that has a belt, I want to fight. There’s no reason why in two years I can’t have all the belts.”
With Hearn as Eubank Jr’s promoter, I can’t see him getting within 3,000 miles of Golovkin. No way do I see Hearn setting up a fight between Eubank Jr. and the hard hitting Kazakhstan fighter. I can’t blame Eubank Jr. for name dropping Golovkin’s name to get some badly needed attention in the media, but it’s not realistic that Hearn will throw the recently beaten Eubank Jr. to a wolf like Golovkin. It would be like Golovkin vs. Willie Monroe Jr. all over again with Golovkin just absolutely destroying Eubank Jr.
“Anybody with a world title in the middleweight division – and the super middleweight division,” Eubank Jr. said. “I’m told now that it’s possible for me to move up and then move back down if I wanted to and I’m trying to rack up as many belts as possible.”
Eubank Jr. really sounds ambitious for a fighter who still has unfinished business with Billy Joe Saunders, but I really think he needs to try and nudge Hearn to have him setup a rematch between him and Saunders rather than wasting time talking about wanting to fight Golovkin and collect all the belts at 160 and 168.
It would make sense if Eubank Jr. to be dreaming about Golovkin if he beat Saunders, Andy Lee, Peter Quillin and Daniel Jacobs. But we’ve haven’t seen Eubank Jr. beat any of these preliminary fighters. In other words, Eubank Jr. needs to crawl before he can walk, and he’s still at the beginning stages of crawling.
There are developmental stages that Eubank Jr. needs to go through before he can get to a Golovkin. He has to creep first, and then stand upright with the help of someone. Once he’s standing on his two feet, he has to learn to walk.
Once he can walk, Eubank Jr. can start calling out Golovkin. But if Hearn were to throw Eubank Jr. in the ring with Golovkin right now, I’m afraid Eubank Jr. would trip over his own two feet and wind up face down on the canvas before Golovkin has even nailed him with his first big left hook.
Trainer Adam Booth will be helping out with Eubank Jr. Just how much input Booth will have is still unclear. If he’s going to be mostly on the margin while Eubank Jr’s father does most of the training, then I see this as a waste of time for Booth and for Eubank Jr. He needs to be the one giving him instructions because Eubank Jr. fights like he doesn’t know what he’s doing all the time. The guy doesn’t throw enough punches, and he spends too much time with posing in the ring instead of actually fighting. That’s why Eubank Jr. lost to Saunders. He was too busy posing after every punch thrown.
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