Eubank Jr: I can out-box and out-brawl Gennady Golovkin

By Boxing News - 06/25/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: British middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. (22-1, 17 KOs) has convinced himself that he can beat the best middleweight in the division Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs), and he plans on trying to realize his dreams by facing the Kazakhstan star in September.

Eubank Jr. believes the fight against GGG will be one of the biggest fights in British boxing history, even though it would only have one Brit involved rather than two. Eubank Jr. thinks he can defeat Golovkin by brawling and boxing him. It’s hard to picture Eubank Jr. out-brawling Golovkin. If you look at how marked up Eubank Jr. was in his last fight against Nick Blackwell, I just can’t see Eubank Jr. being able to defeat Triple G.

Eubank Jr’s promoter Eddie Hearn is said to be close to making the Golovkin fight for September. Eubank Jr. needs to do his part by beating Tom Doran (17-0, 7 KOs) tonight, and not getting in the way of the negotiations with GGG by making unreasonable demands.

Eubank Jr’s ultra-level self-confidence could cause negotiations with Golovkin to implode if he doesn’t realize his place as the B-side fighter. Being confident can be an asset up to a point, but if fails to realize that he’s the B-side guy, then a fight between him and GGG could be impossible to make if he starts asking for too big of a revenue split.

“I told him I was ready for him and there’s been no response yet but all I can do is wait to see if he’s ready to step up and fight someone who isn’t scared of him,” said Eubank Jr. to skysports.com about Golovkin. “No man is unbeatable. People think he’s some invincible monster who knocks everybody out but I know my chin and I know the kind of shots I can take.”

Some boxing fans believe Eubank Jr. to be foolhardy by being recklessly bold with his ideas. The way that Eubank Jr. talks about Golovkin, he doesn’t appear to realize his own meager limits as a fighter. If I had never seen Eubank Jr. fight before, I would think that he must be capable of beating Golovkin with the way he talks. But having seen Eubank Jr. fight many times, it doesn’t make sense to me for him to be self-promoting himself the way he’s doing unless he’s just looking for a payday in the Golovkin fight. I mean, I don’t see that talent there for Eubank Jr. to beat Golovkin or even go more six rounds with him. Heck, I can’t see Eubank Jr. beating Billy Joe Saunders. He’s too slow of hand and foot, and I think Saunders out-boxes him again to build up an early insurmountable lead like he did the last time they fought in 2014.

Golovkin is capable of boxing as well as punching. I think he would whip Eubank Jr. no matter how the fight is fought. Golovkin has a much better jab than Eubank Jr., and we already know his power is far beyond anyone in the division at this point.

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“All he [Golovkin] really has, in my opinion, is powerful punches,” said Eubank Jr. “As far as defence and boxing technique are concerned, I feel I can outbox him and outfight him and out-brawl him. Speed is the key for me so I’d look to go in there and bring it to him unlike all the other fighters who have gone in there knowing they were going to lose,” said Eubank Jr.

Wow, Eubank Jr. is really diminishing Golovkin’s talent here, isn’t he? I wonder how much of this Eubank Jr. actually believes and how much of it he’s just saying to try and pump himself up to convince himself that he’s not a lesser fighter. Personally, I don’t buy any of what Eubank Jr. says when it comes to Golovkin or any of the top fighters. I think it’s an act. If Eubank Jr. truly believes that he’s better than Golovkin, then I feel sorry for him, because that means he doesn’t realize his own limits as a fighter.

Eubank Jr’s inflated opinion of himself would likely get him knocked out faster by Golovkin because he would go straight at him and try and punch rather than staying away to survive the way that normal fighters do. If Eubank Jr. actually believes he can out-brawl Golovkin like he says he can, then he’ll go right at him in round one and likely get his head taken off.

I wouldn’t want to be Eubank Jr. if he went straight at Golovkin in the 1st round thinking he can KO him. I think it’ll be too easy for Golovkin if Eubank Jr. fights like that, and I think he will unfortunately. The guy seems to really believe that he get the better of Golovkin in every part of his game, and that’s not good for him. It just means he’s totally reckless and not someone that can go into the fight with Golovkin with his head screwed on straight.

Golovkin is seen as a dangerous shark in the middleweight division right now by many boxing fans and fighters. If Eubank Jr. is going to jump in the water with Golovkin thinking he can beat him at his own game, then it’s going to be bad for Eubank Jr. The end result of messing around with a shark like Golovkin is you get torn apart. Eubank Jr. is no different from anyone else that Golovkin has fought. He bleeds like anyone else. I think it’s going be feeding frenzy for GGG with him totally massacring Eubank Jr. in that fight.

“So many fighters who fight Golovkin have lost before they’ve entered the ring,” said Eubank Jr. Confidence, a strong mental toughness, is key in boxing and it seems a lot of fighters these days haven’t got as much as I have.”

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Eubank Jr. is wrong about fighters not having confidence when they stepped into the ring with Golovkin. I think many of them have, especially early in Golovkin’s career before he had gained a big reputation as being a destroyer. The problem is that it doesn’t matter how confident fighters are when they face Golovkin. They still lose.

Confidence is meaningless when you fight someone that is simply better than you. In this case, confidence can get Eubank Jr. hurt if he just stays out there soaking up punishment against Golovkin due to his mistaken belief that he can beat him. I’d like to think that at some point that Eubank Jr. will take a knee or stay on his stool if his father Chris Eubank Sr. doesn’t choose to throw in the towel.