By Scott Gilfoid: Chris Eubank Jr. says he’s coming for the rest of IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale’s teeth after he gets done with International Boxing Organization 168lb champion Renold Quinlan (11-1, 7 KOs) in their fight next month on February 4 at the Olympia in London, England.
DeGale (23-1-1, 14 KOs) had some teeth knocked out by WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack (20-1-3, 12 KOs) in their 12 round draw last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Jack knocked some of DeGale’s teeth out and busted his eardrum in one of his ears. DeGale was well beaten up about the face, and was knocked down in the 12th. The boxing fans weren’t too happy when the fight results were announced last Saturday. Jack and his promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr. also weren’t pleased.
Mayweather said that there won’t be a rematch between the two fighters at 168. If DeGale wants a second fight, he’ll need to move up to 175 to face Jack again. There’s no official word yet whether DeGale will take that invitation.
“After I become IBO super-middleweight world champion on Feb 4th, I’m coming for James DeGale,” said Eubank Jr. “DeGale I’m coming for the rest of those teeth too.”
DeGale was exposed by Jack last Saturday. I don’t think I’ve ever seen DeGale get beat up like that before. The thing is, DeGale was running most of the fight. Jack had to pursue him for 12 round rounds. It was only in the last four rounds of the fight that DeGale stopped running and started fighting. I can imagine what Jack would have done to DeGale if he had stood and fought him from round 1.
Eubank Jr. (23-1, 18 KOs) wants to use the IBO title for what he sees as a unification fight. It’s up to DeGale and his promoter Eddie Hearn to decide whether the IBO belt is a big enough title for the fight to be worth it. More importantly, they would need to decide whether the hassle of the negotiations with Eubank Jr. would be worth it to try and make the fight happen.
I doubt that DeGale will take the fight with Eubank Jr. DeGale has a much bigger fight over the horizon against George Groves. That’s a big money fight. Eubank Jr. still needs to make a name for himself for a fight between him and DeGale to be worth anything.