By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBA Chris Eubank Jr. (20-1, 15 KOs) will be fighting #6 WBA Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan (22-1, 15 KOs) this Saturday night in middleweight action on Sky Box Office on the Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte card at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
The winner of the Eubank Jr-O’Sullivan fight supposedly will be getting a shot at the WBA 160lb title against champion Daniel Jacobs now that he’s beaten Peter Quillin in their fight last Saturday night.
However, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the Eubank Jr. vs. O’Sullivan winner having to wait until late 2016 or early 2017 before getting a crack at Jacobs. I can’t see them getting a shot at Jacobs next, because there’s a good chance that we’ll be seeing a rematch between Jacobs and Quillin next rather than a situation where Jacobs has to face his mandatory.
Ultimately, I think the decision will be up to the World Boxing Association to decide whether the Eubank Jr-O’Sullivan winner gets a crack at Jacobs for his WBA title.
“I’ve trained like an animal, like a barbarian, and this guy is going to feel the full force of my training on December 12,” Eubank Jr said via skysports.com. “He’s used social media, Twitter, Facebook – to put it lightly – to be extremely disrespectful towards me to try and get underneath my skin.”
What’s really interesting is that Eubank Jr. spends a lot of time saying he’s not bothered by the comments made by O’Sullivan, yet that’s all Eubank Jr seems to be talking about. Eubank Jr. says that emotions have nothing to do with his contest against O’Sullivan, but it seems to me that Eubank Jr. is all worked up over the fight. I mean, I’d like to believe what Eubank Jr. says about him not being all emotional about the O’Sullivan fight, but it’s hard to take him at face value when all he does is bellyache night and day about the stuff that O’Sullivan is saying. If it doesn’t bother Eubank Jr. about what O’Sullivan is saying, then why in the heck is he blabbering about him?
“For me boxing isn’t a personal thing, it’s a business, it’s a sport, it’s something that I do because I love the sport. For him, he’s used social media, Twitter, Facebook – to put it lightly – to be extremely disrespectful towards me to try and get underneath my skin,” Eubank Jr. said. “When somebody is disrespecting you continuously…it gives you that little bit extra push in the ring…because you know you’re going to get in there and teach him a lesson.”
I think Eubank Jr. needs to admit that it does clearly bother him what O’Sullivan is saying about him. Eubank Jr. needs to drop the pose and admit that he’s kind of touchy when it comes to handling the criticism from O’Sullivan so that we can move past all of this.
The good news is that Eubank Jr. isn’t being matched up against someone really talented for this fight. O’Sullivan is pretty much a bottom dweller in my book, even though he was recently pushed up the WBA’s rankings from the #11 spot to the #6 spot for some reason. Eubank Jr is getting off easy by only having to face O’Sullivan to get a crack at Jacobs instead of some of the talents like Tureano Johnson, Arif Magomedov, Dominic Wade, Antoine Douglas, Willie Monroe Jr or Ryota Murata.
If all Eubank Jr. has to do is beat O’Sullivan to get a title shot against Jacobs, then he’s getting an easy break. I don’t think Eubank Jr can beat the likes of those guys, especially Johnson, Wade, Douglas and Monroe Jr. Those are real talents, and we’ve already seen Eubank Jr. get beaten by Billy Joe Saunders last year in November. That was an embarrassing fight to watch by Eubank Jr., as he spent too much time posing and not enough time staying busy by throwing punches. Eubank Jr. did rally a little in the last four rounds when Saunders gassed out, but it was too little too late by Eubank Jr. He didn’t start fighting hard until too late in the fight.
I think Eubank Jr. will win on Saturday night. He’s not facing a talent in this fight against O’Sullivan, and it should be an easy showcase type fight for him.
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