Golovkin to move on if Eubank Jr. doesn’t sign contract

By Boxing News - 07/06/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Well, as I expected, the negotiations between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Chris Eubank Jr. have ground to a halt after Golovkin agreed to all the terms for the fight. Golovkin and his team are waiting to see if the 26-year-old Eubank will put ink to paper to sign the contract.

It’s not happening thus far, and there are many in the boxing worlds that feel that Eubank Jr. doesn’t really want the fight. Golovkin’s management reportedly plan on moving on quickly if Eubank Jr. chooses not to sign the contract. Golovkin wants to fight in the next in the next two months with or without Eubank Jr.

“Everything agreed from our side, now waiting for Chris Eubank Jr, who all of a sudden has lost his pen,” said GGG on his Twitter on Wednesday.

What’s interesting is the silence that is coming from Eubank Jr’s promoter Eddie Hearn. He’s usually quite vocal on an everyday basis in speaking about the Golovkin-Eubank Jr. fight, but today there’s nothing but silence coming from Hearn. What does that tell you?

Is Hearn unable to get the Eubank’s from signing the contract or what? Hearn has been saying for weeks that he believes Eubank Jr. wants the fight. However, his father Barry Hearn isn’t quite sure if they do or not. If Eubank Jr. doesn’t sign, then it would appear that he didn’t fancy the job.

Last year, Eubank Jr. put himself in position for a world title shot against WBA middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs after he beat Gary O’Sullivan by a 7th round knockout in a WBA title eliminator bout to become the mandatory. Instead of looking to fight Jacobs after locking himself in as the #1 mandatory, Eubank Jr. turned around and fought domestic level fighter Nick Blackwell for his British middleweight title. It was an incredibly odd move, because it meant that Eubank Jr. had wasted his time in fighting O’Sullivan in the WBA eliminator.

As for who Golovkin would face if the Eubank Jr. fight fails to come off, it’s likely someone along the lines of Tureano Johnson, if healthy, or Jorge Sebastian Heiland. There’s honestly not a lot of talented contenders to choose from that would jump at the chance to fight a talent like Golovkin. We’re talking only two months of preparation before they would need to get back inside the ring in September to fight Triple G, and that’s a big ask.

Eubank Jr. is coming off a fourth round knockout win over Tom Doran. It was an easy fight for Eubank Jr., but it was also a second tier opponent and not a world class guy. Eubank Jr. hasn’t been facing world level fighters recently for some reason.