By Jim Dower: #2 WBA Chris Eubank Jr. (21-1, 16 KOs) will be fighting next Saturday night on March 26 against British middleweight champion Nick Blackwell (19-3-1, 8 KOs) in a 12 round fight at the Wembley Arena, in London, UK.
This is an odd career move for the 26-year-old Eubank Jr. and you have to wonder where he got the advice for him to fight a fringe contender like ##15 WBC Blackwell for a domestic level title like the British belt. It’s a move that makes little sense at this point after Eubank Jr. defeated Gary O’Sullivan in his last fight in December by a 7th round knockout.
After that win, it was thought Eubank Jr. would look to fight for a world title against WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs or IBF/IBO/WBA 160lb champion Gennady Golovkin.
Those fights would have made a lot more sense than for Eubank Jr. to take his career backwards to fight Blackwell. This is a fighter who was beaten by Billy Joe Saunders in 2013.
“I did everything I needed to do,” said Eubank Jr. via fightnews.com. “I went in there, made a statement and punished him for the disrespect he had shown me in the lead up to the fight. I boxed him into submission and made him quit. I made him give up. That’s the most dishonorable thing you can do in boxing really. He gave up when he could have continued.”
Blackwell is probably about on the same level as O’Sullivan, perhaps a little lower. That’s why it’s very peculiar that Eubank Jr. has picked him out as an opponent. It almost seems like Eubank Jr. doesn’t believe that he’s ready to take on the best in the 160lb division.
At 26, Eubank Jr. is old enough to fight the best. If he wants to wait around for guys like Gennady Golovkin or Daniel Jacobs to age more, he’s probably wasting his time. Those fighters will continue to be good far into the future. Eubank Jr. needs to fight one or both of them now and learn from the experience. He’s not going to learn much fighting Blackwell.
Blackwell, 25, has a four-fight winning streak since his 6 round draw against Sergey Khomitsky in October 2014. Some boxing fans think Khomitsky should have been given the victory over Blackwell. Never the less, it wasn’t an impressive performance by Blackwell in that fight. He clearly struggled with the power and the pressure that Khomitsky put on him.
In Blackwell’s recent wins, he’s beaten Nathan King, John Ryder, Damon Jones and Jack Arnfield. The win over Ryder was an especially impressive one for Blackwell, as he’s a tough cookie and Blackwell took him out in seven rounds.
“A knockout is lovely, but to see someone really and truly understand that there is no way they can win is a nice feeling as well,” said Eubank Jr. ”He realized he was being hurt, out-boxed, outfought, humiliated and was out of his depth. He’s a strong guy and all it takes is one punch, but for him to think that he didn’t even have that chance – a puncher’s chance – says a lot. He knew there was no way he could win. That was very satisfying.”
Eubank Jr. is putting great store in his win over O’Sullivan. It was a good win, but O’Sullivan had already been beaten in 2013 by Saunders by a lopsided 12 round decision. Beating O’Sullivan after that was a waste of time for Eubank Jr. and a clear backwards career move.
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