By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten Tom Doran (17-0, 7 KOs) will be challenging British middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. (22-1, 17 KOs) this month on June 25 on the Anthony Joshua vs. Dominic Breazeale card at the O2 Arena in London, England. Doran, 28, believes he’s got the punching power and talent to hurt and even stop Eubank Jr. in their fight on Sky Box Office PPV. Doran wants to add Eubank Jr’s scalp to his growing collection of fine pelts.
Doran wasn’t getting many knockouts earlier in his career when he first turned pro back seven years ago in 2009, but in his last four fights, he’s found his power all of a sudden with him knocking out all four opponents. True, Doran hasn’t knocked out anyone with a lot of talent, but just getting the knockouts must have him feeling pretty confident right now that he can hurt his opponents.
However, it’s definitely not a good sign that Doran was dropped in round one by his last opponent Luke Keeler (10-2, 5 KOs) last April. Doran got back up and stopped Keeler in the 2nd round.
Keeler isn’t a big puncher, so he shouldn’t have been able to drop Doran if he had a halfway decent chin.
This is going to be a tremendous move up in class for Doran to be fighting Eubank Jr. this month on June 25. Doran hasn’t fought anyone that can give him an approximation of what he’ll be dealing with when he gets inside the ring with Eubank Jr. As such, Doran will be flying blind in this fight, and it’s likely to end badly for him.
“I don’t think that Eubank Jr’s punch resistance has been tested yet. I know that I have the power to hurt him in the fight and I’m going to lay it all on the line. Fighting for the British title is what I dreamed of doing when I turned pro and I intend to take it with both hands,” said Doran to skysports.com.
I saw Eubank Jr. get stunned in the early going in his fight again Gary O’Sullivan last December. O’Sullivan nailed Eubank Jr. with a big right hand that had him staggering and looking ready to go. Fortunately for Eubank Jr, O’Sullivan didn’t keep hitting him with power shots because if he had, I have no doubts that he would have dropped him for the 10 count.
With that being said, there’s a world of difference between the punching power of Doran and that of O’Sullivan. Just because Eubank Jr was badly buzzed by O’Sullivan doesn’t mean a limited fighter like Doran will be able to do the same. After all, we are talking about a domestic level fighter in Doran. If he was a world class fighter, the sanctioning bodies would have him ranked in the top 15.
This fight is all about Eubank Jr. defending his British 160lb strap so that he can eventually keep it outright rather than this being a competitive match. It’s not meant to be competitive. It’s just Eubank Jr. keeping his career in reverse mode for a while longer. What I don’t understand is all the yapping that Eubank Jr. is doing about wanting to fight the likes of Gennady Golovkin. I mean, if he really wanted to fight Golovkin, then why is he wasting time fighting a guy like Doran? I do not understand that move.
“I’ll be working to a game plan and I am confident I can rip the title from him. He’s number three in the world, that speaks for itself, but taking that scalp and getting into the world rankings myself is just another incentive in this fight,” said Doran. “He’s got chinks in his armor and I plan to make the most of them. I’m not going to broadcast them, but he’s a man with two hands like me and I intend to show the best of me.”
I wouldn’t say Eubank Jr. is No.3 in the world at 160. I have Eubank Jr. at No.9 at middleweight behind the following top fighters: 1. Gennady Golovkin 2. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez 3. Miguel Cotto 4. Daniel Jacobs 5. Peter Quillin 6. David Lemieux 7. Andy Lee. 8. Billy Joe Saunders. I can’t rank Eubank Jr. above those guys because they’ve fought better opposition than him. The only decent fighter Eubank Jr. has fought is Saunders, and he lost to him in 2014. I certainly can’t count Eubank Jr’s recent wins over these guys as being quality opposition: Nick Blackwell, O’Sullivan, Tony Jeter, and Dmitry Chudinov.