By Scott Gilfoid: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is eying a fight between IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale (21-1, 14 KOs) and interim WBA middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr (19-1, 14 KOs) in the future once Eubank Jr moves up to super middleweight. Hearn thinks a fight between the two of them would be a huge affair if the two of them can keep winning. That’s the problem lies.
Eubank Jr has already been beaten by Billy Joe Saunders, and there are better fighters in the division than him. It stands to reason that if Eubank Jr can’t even beat a fighter in the class of Saunders, then how in the heck can he ever beat the real talents in the division like Gennady Golovkin, Peter Quillin, Daniel Jacobs, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto? Will the British boxing public get excited about a DeGale-Eubank Jr fight if the best guy that Eubank Jr has beaten is Dmitry Chudinov? I think not.
Eubank Jr. has been blabbing his mouth about wanting to fight Gennady Golokvin, and seeing weakness in him. Why isn’t Hearn flapping his gums about a fight between Eubank Jr and Golovkin? I mean, they are in the same middleweight division, aren’t they? Why isn’t Hearn standing on top of a soap box crowing about how Eubank Jr will beat Golovkin or how he wants to see this fight happen? You know what? I smell fear coming from Hearn. He’s got a golden goose in Eubank Jr and he doesn’t want to show him off for fear of a fox like Golovkin ripping him to pieces in front of the boxing world. That’s my view of it.
“Eubank Jr against DeGale is a massive fight. There’s also George Groves and Martin Murray there. There are so many huge fights out there for Eubank Jr,” Hearn said to skysports.com. “The Spike O’Sullivan fight is another interesting fight. I think it’s got some nice spice to it. But Eubank Jr against DeGale is huge.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er-tqxkKnnk
The reason why Hearn is mentioning Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan (21-1, 14 KOs) is because that’s the guy that he’s planning on matching against the 26-year-old Eubank Jr on December 12th on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte fight card at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Hearn thinks that the #11 WBA ranked O’Sullivan is a great opponent for Eubank Jr, but in truth it’s basically just a very, very slight upgrade from Eubank Jr’s mismatch against 39-year-old Tony Jeter that will be taking place on the Kell Brook vs. Diego Chaves card on Sky Box Office on October 24th from the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK.
There’s only a whisker of difference between O’Sullivan and Jeter in terms of talent, and neither of them are good opponents for Eubank Jr. as far as I’m concerned unless you like mismatches. I rate Dmitry Chudinov as being a much better fighter than O’Sullivan and Jeter, and I don’t rate Chudinov as being good.
If Hearn really wanted to challenge Eubank Jr, he would be putting him in with Tureano Johnson, Arif Magomedov, Dominic Wade, Antoine Douglas, Willie Monroe Jr, Jorge Sebastian Heiland, Michel Soro, Curtis Stevens, Hassan N’Dam and Matt Korobov. I think those guys would give Eubank Jr all kinds of problems, and likely beat him. But you have to ask the question why isn’t Hearn matching Eubank Jr against talents like them? I mean, I have a pretty good idea and it makes me sad to think about it. Is Hearn matching Eubank Jr soft in order to make him look better than he actually is so that the British boxing fans think he’s a star? I don’t know but I’m obviously suspicious about the way that Hearn’s matching Eubank Jr. so softly.
“The focus for Eubank Jr right now is the middleweight division. He’s virtually in the mandatory position for Daniel Jacobs, and that’s definitely a fight he’d like,” Hearn said.
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