Chris Eubank Jr. added to Joshua-Breazeale card on June 25

By Boxing News - 05/18/2016 - Comments

eubank4333By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBA middleweight contender Chris Eubank Jr. (22-1, 17 KOs) has inked with Matchroom Sport in a new promotional contract. The addition of the 26-year-old Eubank Jr. to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom stable is turning that promotional company into a giant.

I’ve never seen anything like it with one promotional company becoming so huge. It reminds me the type of huge companies we saw during the gilded age when John D. Rockefeller was around with his Standard Oil.

Not surprisingly, Eubank Jr. has been added to the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Dominic Breazeale card on June 25 at the O2 Arena in London, UK. This is a card that will be televised on Sky Box Office PPV, so the more name fighters that Hearn adds the better it is for the PPV potential for the card.

Eubank Jr. still doesn’t have an opponent picked out, however. With their being a little over just a month to go before the June 25 card, it’s hard to imagine Eubank Jr. facing anyone remotely good. That’s not good for the boxing fans, because we’ve already see Eubank Jr. fight four straight hopefully over-matched opponents in Dmitry Chudinov, Tony Jeter, Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan and Nick Blackwell.

It looks to me like Eubank Jr. started out at the contender level and has been sliding downwards in facing steadily worse opposition since his loss to Billy Joe Saunders in 2014. I’m not sure what the end game is for Eubank Jr. other than putting together a Mayweather-like resume that looks good at first glance but has very little substance when one looks closely at.

Eubank Jr. had a chance to fight for a world title against WBA champion Daniel Jacobs. Instead, he went and fought domestic level fighter Nick Blackwell last March in a fight that arguably should have never took place. When a world level fighter starts pooling opponents from the domestic level arena, you’re going to see mismatches like the Eubank Jr-Blackwell fight.

I just don’t know what Eubank Jr. feels he’s gaining by taking his career backwards instead of forwards with him fighting fodder opposition repeatedly. I think it’s stupid and a total a waste of time, but I’m just wondering who’s making the calls for the guy. Eubank Jr. is 26 now, but it won’t be long before he’s in his 30s. If he’s still fighting the same level of opposition he is today, then I see his career winding up being one of those failure to launch types. It’s not as if Eubank Jr. is going to improve enough to one day beat Gennady Golovkin. Heck, Eubank Jr. can fight 2nd tier domestic level opposition for the next five years if he wants to, and I still see him getting smashed by Golovkin when/if they fight. The power just isn’t there with Eubank Jr., and neither is the defensive skills for him to survive against Golovkin or Canelo Alvarez. I hate to say it but I think Eubank Jr. is as good as he’ll ever be at this point. He might be able to tread water by staying at this level for awhile, but I think it’s downhill from here the way it is with any fighter that has reached their zenith/prime. Eubank Jr. needs to start fighting the best guys he can get because the middleweight division is going to get better really soon with talents like Jermall Charlo soon moving up. Once Charlo is at 160, I don’t see Eubank Jr. having a place in the division. Charlo can do everything that Eubank Jr. can do but much better in my view. I see Jermall Charlo as a better version of Eubank Jr. with one-punch power. I’m just saying. This is Eubank Jr’s small window right now for him to make something happen with his career. He needs to go after the weak link among the middleweight champions in WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders and try and take the title while he still can. Once guys like the Charlo and some of the other talents from the 154lb. division move up to 160, Eubank Jr’s bottom five spot will be replaced by them.

“It’s great to be back on the Matchroom team and I’m really looking forward to fighting again on Sky,” said Eubank Jr. “Anthony and I make a great British double act, when on the same card, and we guarantee excellent entertainment for our fans. I’m confident that there will be many more victories for both of us in the near future.”

I really hope that Hearn can find Eubank Jr. a good quality top five contender for him to fight on the June 25 card because it looks really bad for Eubank Jr. to be fighting guys that are badly out of his league. I don’t think it’s fair for Eubank Jr. or his opponents to be fighting 2nd and 3rd tier fighters at this point in his career.

Unless I miss my guess, I see Hearn directing Eubank Jr. towards Saunders and his WBO belt rather than in the danger area against Jacobs and Golovkin. Eubank Jr. is too slow and hittable to compete with Golovkin and Jacobs in my view. They’ll literally take him apart at the seams if they ever get a chance at fighting him. Saunders is a different story.

If Hearn can get Eubank Jr. a fight against Saunders before Golovkin does, then Eubank Jr. can probably beat Saunders and just sit on the WBO title while ignoring Golovkin until he’s old and gray or a PPV attraction. I see Eubank Jr. milking the WBO title until he gets someone like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Miguel Cotto to fight him, or until Golovkin becomes a PPV fighter. The only other way I see Eubank Jr. ever fighting Golovkin is when he starts looking shot. Then I think Hearn will pull the trigger on the fight.

In the co-feature bout on the Joshua-Breazeale card is former three-time world title challenger George Groves facing Martin Murray in super middleweight action.