By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBA, #3 WBC Chris Eubank Jr. (22-1, 17 KOs) says if it were up to him, he would be fighting for a world title against IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, because he feels he’s got the talent to beat the Kazakhstan fighter. Eubank Jr., 26, says he wants to fight for a world title by the end of 2016. He doesn’t say who he’ll be fighting at that time, as there are three champions in the middleweight division right now in Golovkin, WBA champ Daniel Jacobs and WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders.
Eubank Jr. will need to keep winning if he wants to fight any of those guys. He has a fight against unbeaten domestic level fighter Tom Doran (17-0, 7 KOs) next month on the Anthony Joshua vs. Dominic Breazeale card on June 25 on Sky Box Office PPV.
I rate Doran as a step down from Eubank Jr’s previous opponent Nick Blackwell. Eubank Jr. looks like he’s going to be continually matched weakly right up to the point where he’s thrown in the ring with the likes of Golovkin and/or Jacobs or Saunders.
Going from the weak opposition that Eubank Jr. has been facing will likely be a huge shock to his system, as he’s had nothing to prepare himself for what he’ll be facing when he gets inside the ring with them. I know Saunders already beat Eubank Jr. two years ago in 2014. I don’t see Eubank Jr. as having improved enough to beat Saunders unfortunately.
“[I’ll fight him] right now, tomorrow if possible,” Eubank Jr. said to skysports.com. “This guy is considered the best middleweight in the world and for me he doesn’t deserve that position. For me, I feel like I have the tools to beat him so let’s get it on. I really believe I’ll be in the ring fighting for a world title towards the end of this year. I need to get a couple more fights, defend the British belt a few times, then jump in there and win myself a [world] title belt.”
I think Eubank Jr. is name-dropping when he mentions Golovkin’s name. I don’t see Eubank Jr. having a pressing need to share the ring with Golovkin. If Eubank Jr. did, then he would have fought Jacobs when he had the chance as the interim WBA champion rather than choosing to fight domestic level fighter Blackwell in their tragic fight recently. I think it’s pretty much academic that Eubank Jr. would be WAY over his head if he got inside the ring with Golovkin. I think Golovkin would expose Eubank Jr. as Willie Monroe Jr. 2.0.
I see Eubank Jr. as a carbon copy of Monroe Jr., but with more flaws to his game and no real inside game to speak of. At least Monroe could fight on the inside a little. Eubank Jr. is like a fish out of water when he’s on the inside.
All he can do is throwing uppercuts, which he does all the time. If Eubank Jr. tried to throw an uppercut in close against Golovkin, he would likely be laid out with a left hook or straight right to the jaw. You can’t throw badly telegraphed uppercuts against Golovkin because it won’t work.
Tom Doran, 28, has an unbeaten record, but he’s faced domestic level opposition throughout his career, and he doesn’t have any punching power to speak of.
Here are Doran’s last 10 opponents in his career:
Luke Keeler
Rod Smith
Mike Byles
Cello Renda
Craig Cunningham
Harry Matthews
Max Maxwell
Jamie Boness
Dee Mitchell
Terry Adams
As you can see, Doran hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire in going after world class opposition, has he? I mean, Doran is almost 30 and he’s still fighting domestic level opposition rather than taking the training wheels off to fight world class fighters. What does that tell you about Doran. A better question is what does it tell you about Eubank Jr. that he would fight a guy like Doran ranked as highly as he is by the WBA and WBC world ranking bodies.
“I’m the British champion right now so he’s going to have to come out there and rip that belt from me,” said Eubank Jr. about the little known Doran. “As far as ability goes I don’t see it being any contest, but hopefully he can come in and we’ll put on a show.”
I’m frankly surprised that Eubank Jr. would comment at all about his fight against Doran, because if it were me, I would be keeping it on the down low and saying as little as possible about the fight so that my fans didn’t find out that I’m still fighting domestic level opposition at this point in my career.
The fact that Eubank Jr. is not only talking about the Doran fight but also blabbing about his own British domestic level strap is awfully troubling to say the least. I see Eubank Jr. as an underachiever in terms of his career. Yeah, he can talk up a fight against Golovkin and make it seem like he’s ready to fight him, but then turns around and faces the likes of Doran, Blackwell, Tony Jeter or Gary O’Sullivan.