By Charles Brun: Interim WBA middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. says he’d be a more exciting opponent than Billy Joe Saunders for Canelo Alvarez to fight next. Speaking with Sky Sports, Eubank Jr. (29-2, 22 KOs) predicts that Saunders (29-0, 14 KOs) will run all around the ring for the full 12 rounds before Canelo finally knocks him out.
Eubank Jr. isn’t with DAZN, and he’s not in the position to fight Canelo. If Eubank Jr. were one of the Matchroom Boxing fighters in Eddie Hearn’s stable, he’d at least have been looked by Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions.
Is Eubank Jr. more of a threat to Canelo than Saunders?
There’s little questions that Eubank Jr. would make it a lot more interesting against Canelo than the defensive-minded Saunders, who focuses mostly on making his opponents miss. Saunders has looked horrendously poor in his last two fights at 168 against Marcelo Esteban Coceres and Shefat Isufi. Those are both obscure fighters that gave Saunders significant problems.
Eubank Jr. says the only reason Canelo picked Saunders is that he holds the WBO super middleweight title. Canelo wants that title due to it giving him a trophy to validate the Saunders fight in the eyes of casual boxing fans in the U.S, many of which have never heard of the British fighter.
The only thing Saunders has going for him is his WBO 168-lb title, and he could lose that belt if the World Boxing Organization decides to strip him due to the hot water he’s in over the video he posted recently
The 30-year-old Eubank Jr. is coming off of a 2nd round injury stoppage win over Matt Korobov on December 7 in a fight for the interim WBA middleweight title. Eubank Jr. feels that the WBA FULL 160-lb title should have been on the line for the Korobov fight because Canelo moved up to 175 to fight WBO champion Sergey Kovalev.
He doesn’t like how the World Boxing Association allowed Canelo to freeze his title while he moved up two weight classes to take on WBO 175-lb champion Kovalev.
Eubank Jr. talks Canelo fight
“It would be a more exciting fight with me [against Canelo] rather than Saunders or Smith,” said Eubank Jr. to skysports.com. The entire world knows that Saunders would run for 12 rounds in a boring fight then would be caught and knocked out. That is not a fight I’m interested in seeing.”
Eubank Jr. isn’t the only one that has little interest in seeing Canelo fight Saunders. There are a massive number of boxing fans that have ZERO interest in watching Canelo fight the British fighter Saunders, but he doesn’t seem to care.
You can argue that Canelo selected Saunders for these chief reasons:
- Weaker puncher
- Not a threat to beating him
- Holds WBO super middleweight title
- Fights on DAZN
- Easy payday
Although Canelo receives a lot of credit for having fought some big names during his career, for the most part, he’s bypassed dangerous young guys in the prime of their careers.
These were the ages of some of Canelo’s best-known opponents when he fought them:
- Miguel Cotto – 35
- Gennadiy Golovkin – 35
- Shane Mosley – 40
- Floyd Mayweather Jr. – 36
- Sergey Kovalev – 36
- Daniel Jacobs – 33
- Carlos Baldomir – 39
Eubank Jr. says he wouldn’t have stuck it out in the negotiations with Canelo if it had been him. He thinks that Saunders and Callum Smith, the two fighters that were competing for Canelo’s next fight, were looking to get the payday. Eubank Jr. notes that both Callum and Saunders are coming off of “terrible” performances, and he believes that Canelo would be knockout both guys.
The poor performance by Saunders in his last fight against Marcelo Estaban Coceres might be the main reason Canelo picked him out. Had Saunders looked incredible in beating Coceres, he likely would have been ignored by Canelo.
