By Patrick McHugh: Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn is saying that Chris Eubank Jr. (23-1, 18 KOs) could be added to the Gennady “GGG” Golovkin vs. Kell Brook card on September 10 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Having the 26-year-old Eubank Jr. on the undercard of the Golovkin-Brook fight would help setup a fight between the winner of them and Eubank Jr. later on in the year in December.
Hearn would like to match Eubank Jr. against the winner of that fight, as he promotes Eubank Jr. as well as Brook. It would be a win-win situation for Hearn and his Matchroom stable if they can get the winner of the Golokvin vs. Brook fight to face Eubank Jr. rather than having them move in another direction.
“He could fight on the undercard,” Hearn said about Eubank Jr. via ringtv.com on Thursday at New York’s press conference. “He could possibly fight the winner. He’s got a big career ahead of him. He’s British (middleweight) champion. Kell Brook is one of the top pound-for-pound fighters.”
It would be great even if Eubank Jr. fights the loser of the Golovkin-Brook fight, because that would make for an interesting fight. It’s doubtful that Hearn would go for that idea, however. It only helps Hearn and Eubank Jr. if he gets a crack at fighting the winner of the September 10th fight rather than the loser.
The loser of the fight is likely going to be the 30-year-old Brook and it would be bad for him – and Hearn – to be in the position where he has a high chance of losing a second straight fight. Brook might come out of the Golovkin fight depleted if he takes a beating from the Kazakhstan fighter rather than gets taken out quickly.
Eubank Jr. had the fight against Golovkin there for the taking, but he and his father Chris Eubank Sr., who handles his business affairs, failed to agree to the contract terms for the fight in time. Hearn set a deadline that Eubank Jr. failed to meet. Hearn then offered the fight to Brook, who accepted it. Brook has never had a big money fight in his career, so it wasn’t surprising that he accepted it. Brook had no real prospects for a big money fight at the time that the Golovkin fight was offered to him by Hearn.
“They missed the boat,” Hearn said about the Eubanks to Ringtv.com. “I think they felt I was calling their bluff. But I wasn’t. It was just — you have enough time now. Tom Loeffler is going to go somewhere else. So there’s the terms. It’s perfect for (Anthony) Joshua; it’s perfect for Kell Brook; it’s perfect for Carl Froch. It’s got to be perfect for you. And they messed around – small things, silly things. But he’ll come back again. He’s a big draw in the UK. There’s already been some back and forth between Eubank Jr. and Kell Brook so that could be a fight for the future. We have to talk to him. It hasn’t been the best relationship in the last week.”
The reasonable thing to wonder is whether Hearn can put together a deal to get Eubank Jr. on the undercard of the Golovkin vs. Brook fight. If he runs into the same problem that he did last time with him setting a deadline and the Eubanks not meeting that deadline, then we might not see him fight anytime soon.