By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBA Chris Eubank Jr. (21-1, 16 KOs) gave up his WBA mandatory spot for a world title shot in order to fight British middleweight champion Nick Blackwell (19-3-1, 8 KOs) this Saturday night on March 26 at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.
Eubank Jr, 26, obviously has his reasons for choosing not to go after WBA champion Daniel Jacobs or WBA Super 160lb champion Gennady Golovkin, but perhaps he and his father Chris Eubank Sr. don’t feel he’s ready to fight for a world title at this time. Just when Eubank Jr. will be ready to fight for a world title is unknown.
He’s got the youth to wait out the 34-year-old Golovkin, but that doesn’t ensure that some other middleweight doesn’t come along and swoop in on the WBA title once Golovkin is gone. If Jermall Charlo moves up in weight to 160, Eubank Jr. will probably be out of luck if he has to battle that hard puncher for the WBA belt one of these days.
There’s really nothing for Eubank Jr. to gain in fighting a weak fringe contender like #15 WBC Blackwell for his British title. There’s a lot to lose for Eubank Jr. and next to nothing to gain from the fight. If Eubank Jr. struggles to beat Blackwell or if he loses, he’s going to take a major hit in terms of popularity and perhaps even with his rankings with the sanctioning bodies.
On the other hand, if Eubank Jr. trounces Blackwell, it’s doubtful that the boxing world will care any because the light hitting Blackwell has already been well beaten in the past by Max Bursak, Billy Joe Saunders and Martin Murray. As such, it’s just a very, very odd move for Eubank Jr. to be wasting his time fighting Blackwell at this point in his career.
Eubank Jr. has already had fights against Saunders, Gary O”Sullivan and Dmitry Chudinov, and beaten two of those guys. Why then would Eubank Jr. want to go backwards with his career to fight the likes of Blackwell? It’s a senseless move that makes one think that Eubank Jr. might have confidence issues that could potentially stunt and eventually severely cripple his career.
“Blackwell has a weak defense,” Eubank said via ESPN.com. “He’s open a lot of the time and I feel like I can definitely capitalize on this lack of defense. I’ve watched his last few fights. Nothing I’ve seen impresses me or worries me. His style and attributes are nothing special. He’s a British-level fighter and I’m world level. The public will see the difference once we step into the ring.”
Yeah, of course Blackwell has defensive problems. I mean, he’s a domestic level fighter. What does Eubank Jr. expect of him? When you select a domestic level fighter, then of course they’re going to have defensive problems. They’re also going to likely have problems with their offense. Heck, that’s why they’re domestic level in the first place. If they were any good, they would be fighting for world title honors rather than hanging around fighting for trinket belts rather than the real thing.
If Eubank Jr. needed to be told that Blackwell was flawed, then he should have researched his past fights and watched him lose to Murray, Bursak and Saunders. That should have been proof enough that he’s not the best fighter since sliced bread. There would be no need for discussion or ambiguity. Blackwell has already been exposed a number of times, and he’s just a domestic level guy. When you ram your career into reverse the way Eubank Jr. has, this is what you’re going to get.
Eubank Jr. hasn’t reacted too well to the trash talking from Blackwell during the build up to this fight. It almost comes across like Eubank Jr. was hoping that Blackwell would fawn over him by pointing out how great he is. Blackwell hasn’t done this. What does Eubank Jr. expect? When you go backwards in development, then of course you’re going to get dumped on. I mean, if Eubank decided to go back to grade school and sit with 11-year-olds in class, they would probably give him grief for him going backwards. Well, that’s what Eubank Jr. is getting from Blackwell. That’s why you don’t make oddball career moves like Eubank Jr. When you step it up to another level, then you stay at that level unless you’re proven that you don’t belong there. With Eubank Jr., he just decided out of the blue to go back to an earlier stage of development to fight for a title that he should have fought for years ago. Words can’t describe how weird this move is.
“I watched his fight with Max Bursak and noticed he was getting caught with a lot of uppercuts,” Eubank said. “Obviously, I’m not Max Bursak. I’m a level above him. If he’s catching Blackwell with uppercuts, I know what’s going to happen when he gets caught with mine.”
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