By Patrick McHugh: WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12 KOs) took to social medial on Saturday to take a shot at Chris Eubank Jr. and his father Chris Eubank for them missing out on what would have been a very lucrative fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) for September 10 at the O2 Arena in London, UK.
According to their promoter Eddie Hearn, he gave them a deadline to agree to the contract for the Golovkin fight, and they let the deadline pass without agreeing to it. Hearn then made the same offer to IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook and readily accepted.
Brook is now Golovkin’s opponent for September 10, and will be getting a career high payday win or lose.
Now I hope people can see what the Eubanks are like to deal with very embarrassing 😂😂 sad games to play
— billyjoesaunders (@bjsaunders_) July 8, 2016
Saunders fought and beat Eubank Jr. by a 12 round split decision two years ago in November 2014. Since then, Saunders has wanted to fight Eubank Jr. again but the fight never materialized between them. Eubank Jr. has turned his career around in a way by winning his last five fights, but he’s beaten lesser opposition rather than the talented middleweights. Eubank Jr’s last two fights have come against domestic level opponents in Nick Blackwell and Tom Doran.
With Eubank Jr. not getting the Golovkin fight, the question now is will Eubank Jr. continue to fight domestic level fighters or will he start fighting highly ranked world class contenders. It would be a risk on Eubank Jr’s part to take on a difficult contender in the division, because there would be a risk of him losing. Eubank Jr. is in the running to fight the winner of the Golovkin vs. Brook fight, according to his promoter Hearn. He wants to try and match Eubank Jr. against the winner of that contest.
Golovkin would likely jump at the chance of fighting another highly popular British fighter if he can get past Brook. It’ll depend on how quickly Eubank Jr. moves to make the fight happen. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez says they don’t have a lot of time to devote to long negotiations with fighters because they want to stay busy. The negotiations need to be fairly quick. Someone like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez would obviously be an exception to that rule because it’s such a big fight.
Saunders says he’ll be fighting next on September 17. He’s expected to be defending his WBO title on the undercard of the Canelo vs. Liam Smith card. There’s a lot of talk that Saunders will be Canelo’s opponent for December if he gets past Smith. Canelo would be challenging Saunders for his WBO middleweight title. It would be a sensational fight for Saunders, and a chance for him to prove that he can beat one of the best fighters in the sport. Even if Saunders loses, the fame he’ll get from the fight will be considerable. It would also be a big money fight for him.