By Scott Gilfoid: Newly crowned IBO super middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. (24-1, 189 KOs) did his part in stopping little known IBO 168lb champion Renold Quinlan (11-2, 7 KOs) by a 10th round knockout on Saturday night, and now he wants to fight IBF 168lb champion James DeGale (23-1-1, 14 KOs).
Eubank Jr. will be fighting next in April, which is a very quick turnaround. It’s doubtful that DeGale is going to want to get back inside the ring in two months from now to fight Eubank Jr.
That’s not very much time to negotiate the fight, and train for it. Eubank Jr. is going to have to be satisfied with taking on a lesser name for his April fight, because he’s not going to get DeGale or Gennady Golovkin to fight him in April.
Eubank Jr. and his father Chris Eubank Sr. say that the 31-year-old DeGale is the first target. Eubank Sr. says he’ll give DeGale a few weeks, but he doesn’t think he’ll be able to turn the fight down, because it will make him look bad if he does. Eubank Sr. also says he wants middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin for a fight against Eubank Jr. “ASAP.” However, that’s going to be a lot tougher fight to get, because Golovkin has a fight on March 18 against Daniel Jacobs on HBO PPV at Madison Square Garden in New York.
If Golovkin wins that fight, then his promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions will be attempting to negotiate a fight with Golden Boy Promotions for him to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in September. Eubank Jr’s win tonight against Renold Quinlan is meaningless when it comes to the 160lb division, because Eubank Jr. does hold a belt in that division. Being the IBO champion at 168 means nothing when it comes to the middleweight division. Eubank Jr. had his chance to fight Golovkin last September, and he failed to take it, so it was offered to Kell Brook.
“This is my ticket to the big time to challenge all the other world champions in the middleweight division and super middleweight division,” said Eubank Jr. at the post-fight press conference. “So I guess It’s whoever steps up first. Andre Ward is not in the super middleweight or middleweight divisions. We’re chasing James DeGale, then that’s what we shall do. I sparred with him many years ago. I know what he is, and I know what I can do to him. That’s the fight people want to see, and now we have the platform. There are great fights to be made, and I’m right in the mix now,” said Eubank Jr.
DeGale may or may not agree to fight Eubank Jr. DeGale is coming off of a grueling 12 round draw against former WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack on January 14 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. I’m not sure that DeGale and his promoter Eddie Hearn are going to see the Eubank Jr. fight as a lucrative enough fight to take.
DeGale might be better off waiting for a rematch with George Groves if he can beat Fedor Chudinov in their fight for the WBA Super World super middleweight title. A fight between DeGale and Groves would be a huge one. A fight between DeGale and Eubank Jr. would likely be a lot smaller fight, and not nearly as interesting for boxing fans.
“In April, we’re ready to go again,” said Eubank Sr. “This belt has just become the most important of them all, because of who carries it. At middleweight, they’re talking about Golovkin, and we’re going to be negotiating with him too. Where Golovkin is concerned, we’re looking to make that fight ASAP at middleweight. Those are the two he has in mind. At middleweight, it’s Golovkin because we got swindled out of that fight in 2016. We got swindled out of that fight. Now those guys are to the side. Now we can plow ahead and make up for lost time. We only lost six months. He’s been right on target,” said Eubank Sr.
I think Eubank Jr. and his dad are going to quickly find out that it’s not a big deal being the IBO super middleweight champion. It’s not even a big deal being an IBF, WBA or WBO champion. The titles don’t mean much at 168 or any division. What means something nowadays is whether a fighter is popular and has a large fan base. If they don’t have the popularity, then it doesn’t matter which title they have in their possession.
Eubank Jr. is the IBO champion, which some boxing fans see as a lesser title. Eubank Jr. isn’t a highly popular fighter, so he’s got two strikes against him. He’s not holding a major title, and he’s not very popular. Eubank Jr. can certainly call out fighters like DeGale, Billy Joe Saunders and Golovkin, but I think he’s about to find out the hard way that it doesn’t matter whether he’s a belt holder or not.
Without Eubank Jr. being a popular fighter, he’s not going to get the guys that he wants to fight him unless they see the fight as being worthwhile. I doubt that Golovkin is going to want to forget about a fight against Canelo Alvarez so that he can fight Eubank Jr. That’s probably not going to happen. Eubank Jr’s IBO title belt at 168 isn’t going to help him to get the top fighters in the 160lb division to fight him, because it’s a different division from the one that he’s holding a belt in.
“Saunders is starving, and I’m the food,” said Eubank Jr. “Without me, he hasn’t got anything. That’s his entire career. I’ve got to right the wrong,” said Eubank Jr.
Saunders has a fight against Avtandil Khurtsidze right now. He’s got his hands full with that fight.
“They will [fight Eubank Jr.] because they’ve got no choice,” said Eubank Sr.
The other champions like DeGale and Golovkin DO have a choice whether to fight Eubank Jr. or not. They’ve got other options available to them, and they won’t lose sleep if some boxing fans are upset if they don’t take the fight. I think the fans would prefer to see DeGale fight Groves than Eubank Jr. Likewise, I think the fans would prefer to see Golovkin fight Canelo rather than Eubank Jr. What Eubank Jr. did tonight in beating Renold Quinlan was too small of a win for him to shake up the boxing world. You can argue that what Eubank Jr. did was beat another Tom Doran or Nick Blackwell level domestic level fighter rather than beating a world champion fighter. The way that Quinlan fought tonight, he looked no better than Blackwell and Doran.
“If they don’t, we’ve got ITV, and I’m the most exciting fighter in Britain,” said Eubank Jr. in speaking about what they’ll do if they can’t get the top fighters to face him. “That’s right, in the world. Somebody is going to step up. There’s going to be somebody that steps up, and we have the platform.”
I’d be surprised if Eubank Jr. is going to be able to get DeGale or Golovkin to fight him. I don’t know of anyone that Eubank Jr. will be able to fight him off of a win over Quinlan. It wasn’t a big enough win, and his IBO strap isn’t a prestigious one. I hate to say it, but I don’t think the IBO title is seen in the same light as a major belt like the WBC title. It’s nice that Eubank Jr. and his father see the IBO title as a belt that will open doors for them, but I don’t see it that way.
“When you’re a fighter, you’re completed when called out, otherwise you look like what you’ve been fighting against your whole life and that’s appear to be a punk,” said Eubank Sr. “Don’t worry, we’ll wait. We’ll give him a few more weeks, but we’ll wait. There’s no escape. We’ve been marinating him,” said Eubank Sr. about DeGale.