By Jim Dower: British super middleweight champion Nick Blackwell (19-3-1, 8 KOs) weighed in at 159.25lbs today during his weigh-in for his title defense this Saturday night against the highly ranked #2 WBA 160lb contender Chris Eubank Jr. (21-1, 16 KOs) for their fight at the Wembley Arena in London, UK. Eubank Jr. weighed in at 159.6lbs. The Eubank Jr. vs. Blackwell fight will be televised on BoxNation.
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Heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (18-0, 10 KOs) weighed in at 234.6lbs for his 10 round fight against 40-year-old journeyman Dominick Guinn (35-10-1, 24 KOs). For his part, Guinn weighed in at 254.6lbs.
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Super middleweight contender Frank Buglioni (17-2-1, 13 KOs) weighed in at 177lbs for his light heavyweight contest against journeyman Olegs Fedotovs (21-24, 15 KOs). For his part, Fedotovs weighed in at 173.25lbs.
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There’s been a lot of trash talking going on between Eubank Jr. and Blackwell ever since the fight was first announced. This is obviously a fight that Eubank Jr. wanted for personal reasons rather than for the accomplishment of winning the British middleweight title. Winning that belt isn’t going to do much for Eubank Jr’s reputation or popularity in the sport, because he’s already shown that he’s capable of much more than that.
Eubank Jr. locked himself in for a world title shot against WBA middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs after beating Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan last December in their WBA middleweight title eliminator bout. After winning that fight, the next logical step for Eubank Jr. would have been for him to have his promoter negotiate a title fight against Jacobs.
Instead of doing that, Eubank Jr. surprised boxing fans by choosing instead to fight the unheralded Blackwell for his domestic level belt. For Eubank Jr fans, they think it’s a great idea for him to get more experience fighting Blackwell rather than fighting Jacobs for his title right now. They think Eubank Jr. needs more seasoning before fighting for a world title against someone as powerful and as experienced as Jacobs. However, the question is how much experience can Eubank Jr. get in fighting domestic level fighters like Blackwell or O’Sullivan rather than the more talented contenders in the middleweight division.
Eubank Jr. won’t get much credit for beating Blackwell on Saturday night because he’s already been beaten by the likes of Max Bursak, Billy Joe Saunders and Martin Murray in the past. Saunders did have problems beating Blackwell after he gassed out in the second half of the fight. However, Blackwell didn’t have the size or the punching power to give Saunders the kinds of problems that he could have given him.
Eubank Jr. needs to win this fight and look good. Blackwell is a lot smaller than him, and he doesn’t have the same kind of power. Eubank Jr’s boxing stock will drop way off if he has to struggle to win this fight. It won’t matter that he gets the win.
The fans will note that he had to struggle to beat a B-level domestic level fighter, and they’ll use that as a sign that he won’t ever beat the likes of Daniel Jacobs or Gennady Golovkin. To compete against those fighters, Eubank Jr. needs to show that he can beat the lower level fighters with ease.
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