By Scott Gilfoid: Promoter Frank Warren doesn’t see #1 WBA Chris Eubank Jr. (21-1, 16 KOs), in his present form, as being ready to fight the likes of WBA “regular” champion Daniel Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) or IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs). Warren questions Eubank Jr’s defensive skills or lack thereof, and his lack of huge punching power. Those areas would be real problems for Eubank Jr. in a fight against the likes of Jacobs and Golovkin.
Eubank Jr. earned the right to face Jacobs next with a 7th round stoppage win over Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan (22-2, 15 KOs) last Saturday night in an WBA eliminator bout. It was a good performance from Eubank Jr., as he shined in beating O’Sullivan. Eubank Jr. had little problems pounding out a stoppage against the limited O’Sullivan.
Of course, Eubank Jr. wasn’t sharing the ring with a world beater by any stretch of the imagination. I personally didn’t rate O’Sullivan as a top 15 contender, even though the World Boxing Association did.
“Chris Eubank and Spike was a decent fight, but please, you put Chris Eubank in with Golovkin or Jacobs yet, I don’t think so,” Warren said to IFL TV. “He’s [Eubank] very exciting. He throws a lot of punches, but not a big puncher. Not a hurtful puncher. Not a destructive puncher and I’ve always said he’s got defensive problems. He’s easy to hit,” Warren said.
I totally agree with you, Mr. Warren. I think Eubank Jr. just isn’t ready to step inside the ring with the likes of Jacobs and especially not against Golovkin. Jacobs is looking so incredibly good right now. Jacobs’ accuracy is out of this world, and his punching power is extraordinary. I didn’t like the way Eubank Jr. was getting shaken up each time O’Sullivan landed anything in the fight. It was surprising and quite sad to see.
If O’Sullivan had kept throwing punches, I think he would have eventually gotten Eubank Jr. out of there in short order. But a murderous puncher like Jacobs wouldn’t have let up on Eubank Jr. in the first few rounds, and he wouldn’t have missed much with his shots the way that O’Sullivan did.
Billy Joe Saunders, ranked #1 by the WBO, doesn’t think much of Eubank Jr., and he wasn’t in the least impressed with his win over O’Sullivan. Saunders already royally whipped O’Sullivan two years ago, so Eubank Jr. basically got sloppy seconds in facing O’Sullivan at this point in his career.
It’s surprising that Eubank Jr’s promoter Eddie Hearn even wasted time putting him in with O’Sullivan, because it was a no-win situation where he had nothing to gain from the fight. The only thing that Eubank Jr. could do is to try and do a better job against O’Sullivan than Saunders did, and you can’t really say that he did, because Saunders wasn’t hurt by O’Sullivan like Eubank Jr. was.
“You’re not the best middleweight in your own country and you want to fight a world champion and say you’re going to beat him? I think it’s delusion and he thinks he’s greater than he actually is,” Saunders said about Eubank Jr. “Sooner rather than later he’s going to get exposed again as the fraud that he is. You can keep talking but eventually you have to back it up in the ring against top level fighters. He’s won his last fight now he’s back talking shit again like he’s the best fighter in history.”
Well, Hearn is already pushing for a fight between Eubank Jr. and Jacobs for April 9th on the same card as heavyweight Anthony Joshua’s next fight at the O2 Arena in London, UK. It’s still unclear whether the Jacobs-Eubank Jr. fight will take place in April, but it’s surely going to be taking place at some point in 2016. I don’t think Eubank Jr. is going to be prepared for that fight.
Heck, even if Hearn chooses to have him fight a tune-up fight, I still don’t think it’s going to help him any. The eliminator fight against O’Sullivan was pretty much a tune-up fight, and there’s no way that the fight helped Eubank Jr. in any discernible way to get him ready for a talent like Jacobs. A fight against the likes of O’Sullivan might have been a good fight to get Eubank Jr ready for a domestic level fighter of limited talent, but not against a Jacobs or Golovkin.
It’ll be interesting to see if Hearn will go ahead and put Eubank Jr. in with Jacobs right now or if he’ll see what I see that he’s still not ready for tha fight. I think Eubank Jr. still needs more seasoning before he fights a quality middleweight. If I was Hearn, I’d slowly match Eubank Jr. against tougher and tougher opponents to improve him, and make sure he doesn’t wilt before putting him in with a champion.
Here are the fighters that Eubank Jr. needs to face to get ready for the big time talents like Jacobs and Golovkin:
Tureano Johnson
Arif Magomedov
Dominic Wade
Willie Monroe Jr
Ryota Murata
Antoine Douglas
David Lemieux
Hassan N’Dam
Peter Quillin
Sebastian Heiland
Erislandy Lara
Jermall Charlo
Jermell Charlo
Demetrius Andrade
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