By Jeff Aronow: Chris Eubank Jr. posted a video of himself sparring this week on social media, and he’s not showing any indication of having improved his game with new trainer Roy Jones Jr.
The 30-year-old Eubank Jr. (29-2, 22 KOs) recently added Jones to his team to help him develop, but he’s thus far now showing signs of raising his game to another level.
At this early point of Eubank’s working relationship with Jones, he doesn’t appear to be catching on to the things that he’s attempting to teach him. He’s fighting nothing like Jones, and he’s getting too often. Jones didn’t get hit the way Eubank Jr. is during the prime of his career. Eubank Jr. is in his prime right now, and he’s too easy to catch.
Trainer Roy Jones is trying to help Chris Jr.
During the sparring clip, Eubank Jr failed to use his jab, and he is rushing in and getting caught repeatedly by his smaller sparring partner. Like always, Eunank Jr. threw repeated uppercuts, which is fine.
During one portion of the sparring session, Eubank Jr. appeared to be hurt after taking a shot on the top of his head. Eubank left himself open for his opponent to hit on the top of the head with the way he was bent over.
Eubank Jr has a great uppercut, but he needs work on is his outside game. He doesn’t use his jab, and he’s ineffective when he’s on the outside.
In Eubank’s two career defeats against Billy Joe Saunders and George Groves, they were able to box him on the outside, and build-up commanding leads in the first half of the fights. Eubank Jr. came back in the second half of the matches, but he failed to do enough to make up for poor starts.
Jones Jr. needs a different strategy
The things that Roy is trying to teach Eubank Jr. on how to box, he’s not showing signs of being able to grasp them. Roy may need to try a different approach to impress upon Eubank Jr. that he needs to stop slugging and focus more on staying on the outside.
What makes it even more critical for Eubank Jr. to learn to box is because he’s got ambitions of wanting to take on Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin and Jermall Charlo.
Those are fighters with much more power than him, and they’ll take him apart if he tries to brawl on the inside with them. Golovkin isn’t great inside fighter, but he won’t need to be. Eubank Jr. is there to be hit when he comes forward.
The lockdown with boxing could help Eubank Jr. because it’ll give him more time to work with Roy Jones.
Fighting the way Eubank does, he can beat some of the fighters in the 160-pound weight class, but the elite guys. It’s probable that Eubank Jr. would lose to virtually all of the top five in the middleweight division right now. That’s why it’s important that Eubank begins to follow Jone’s instructions because he looks unchanged from the fighter he was before he joined up with him.