By Chris Williams: Former IBO super middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. (29-2, 22 KOs) defeated Matt Korobov (28-3-1, 14 KOs) by a strange 2nd round injury stoppage on Saturday night to win the interim WBA middleweight belt at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME)

The 36-year-old Korobov’s left shoulder was injured in round 2 when he attempted to throw a punch. It was dislocated, and he immediately backed up, bent forward and motioned to the referee that he was hurt. Eubank Jr. looked for a second like he was going to pounce on the hurt Korobov, but he held thankfully. The official time of the stoppage by referee Steve Willis was at 0:34 of round 2.

Korobov comes up empty again

This was the third consecutive fight for the Russian Korobov in which he’s dealt with bad luck. In previous fight against Immanuwel Aleem last May, Korobov fought well enough to deserve a decision, but the judges scored it a 10 round draw. The fight took place in Virginia, which is where Aleem lives.

Before that, Korobov lost a controversial 12 round decision to Jermall Charlo last December. That was a fight in which Korobov looked like he had edged it, but the judges turned in wide scores in favor of Charlo. The boxing public was shocked, and more than a little unhappy about it.

Korobov’s last win was against Jonathan Batista last year in March. Although Korobov fought well enough to deserve wins over Charlo and Aleem, he technically lost both fights.

The 30-year-old Eubank Jr. was involved in a fight against George Groves last year in February 2018 involved a shoulder injury as well. Groves’ left shoulder came out of the socket in round 12, but he was able to finish the fight to get the win. Like Korobov’s shoulder injury, Groves was a freak thing, and not something that eubank Jr had done with a power punch.

Eubank Jr. in position for a world title shot

Winning the interim WBA middleweight title puts Eubank Jr. in the position to potentially get a fight against WBA champion Saul Canelo Alvarez or Ryota Murata. The bigger payday for Eubank would be against Canelo, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll get the fight. It’s very unlikely he will, because there’s nothing for Canelo to fight Eubank Jr.

The guy that Eubank Jr. could wind up facing sooner or later is WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. Eubank Jr. fought on the undercard of Charlo’s fight against Dennis Hogan tonight.