By Charles Brun: Former IBO 168-pound champion Chris Eubank Jr says he sees weakness in the game of Canelo Alvarez, and he believes he can exploit it to the fullest if he gets a chance to fight him in September.
The superstar Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) still needs an opponent for his next fight, which is said to be taking place without fans present on September 12 on DAZN.
Eubank Jr (29-2, 22 KOs) would need to meet the budget constraints that Golden Boy Promotions has for Canelo’s next fight, however.
With this contest likely to be held in an empty arena due to the pandemic, there won’t be the vast money available for Canelo’s opponent. As such, if Eubank Jr, 30, is willing to accept a small offer from Golden Boy, then maybe he can potentially get the Golden ticket to share the ring with the star Canelo.
Golden Boy knows what type of guys that Canelo can do well against, and Eubank Jr might be deemed the wrong type. Canelo needs fighters that wait a long period of time before throwing single shots, as that gives him time to rest and prepare to counter.
Gennady Golovkin has done poorly against Canelo because he doesn’t throw enough punches, and he has a bad habit of waiting for the right moment to throw a single punch. Eubank Jr is the opposite of Golovkin. Chris Jr goes on the attack and throws a storm of shots looking to overwhelm his opponent’s defense.
Alvarez can be beaten by volume punching
If Eubank Jr can throw 80 to 100 punches per round against Canelo, he could beat him. Canelo doesn’t have the stamina to throw more than 40 without tiring, and he’d be vulnerable against Eubank Jr if he unloads on him with nonstop punches.
Eubank Jr isn’t the biggest puncher in the 160-lb division, but he barriers his opponents with his output. In Canelo would have lost to Daniel Jacobs in 2019 if the ‘Miracle Man’ had let his hands go in the first six rounds.
Jacobs showed Canelo too much respect early on, and he fell behind and couldn’t make up for lost ground. Eubank Jr can learn from the Canelo-Jacobs bout, and not make the same mistake that Jacobs did by fighting scared in rounds one through six.
Eubank Jr is now being trained by boxing legend Roy Jones Jr, and he’s making a lot of improvements in his game. The bad habit that Eubank formerly had of posing after throwing punches has been weeded out of his game, and he’s using his jab a lot more.
We’re not going to see the full effects of the changes that Jones makes with Eubank Jr for a couple of years, as it’s going to take a while for him to eradicate his bad habits.
Eubank Jr sees WEAKNESS in Canelo
“Canelo Alvarez, that’s the No.1 fight that I want right now. I don’t think anyone on the planet would make a better opponent for him,” said Eubank Jr to Sky Sports Boxing.
“Most guys are going in there to run and survive, I’m going in there to destroy. “I know I can beat him, so that’s the fight I want. And I definitely have got a strategy. I see the weaknesses. I see where he can be exposed,” said Eubank Jr.
The weakness that Eubank Jr has spotted in the game of Canelo is probably his stamina, and his tendency to fight only spurts. Stamina issues have been a problem in Canelo’s game since he turned professional in 2005, but no one has taken advantage of it. When Floyd Mayweather Jr beat Canelo in 2013, he did it by keeping the match at long range and using his jab to pick him apart.
Canelo being a counter puncher, he wasn’t able to react to Mayweather’s single jabs the way he’d done against opponents that were throwing power shots at him. Gennadiy Golovkin and Erislandy Lara both unsuccessfully tried to use the blueprint created by Mayweather in how to beat Canelo, but they both came up empty.
Lara and Golovkin found out the hard way how difficult it is to win a decision over the superstar Canelo. You got to do A LOT to please the judges when you face a star like Canelo, and it’s not going to work for Eubank Jr if he follows the Mayweather Jr blueprint.
Canelo looked shaky against Sergey Kovalev in the eighth round of their match last November. Canelo stopped Kovalev in the 10th, but he looked like he was getting pummeled when the Russian suddenly started throwing bombs in round eight.
Alvarez and Golovkin are the fights Eubank Jr wants
“I’m not looking to survive, I’m taking the fight to him and I don’t think he’s ready for somebody like that,” said Eubank Jr on Canelo. “I’m with Premier Boxing Champions so it’s most likely that I will fight in the States.
“The top two fighters? Gennadiy Golovkin and ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, two of the biggest names in boxing and they both have middleweight titles.
“Those are the guys I want. Those are the fights that I need at this stage of my career,” said Eubank Jr.
IBF 160-pound champion Golovkin has a fight scheduled coming up in September or October against his mandatory Kamil Szeremeta. It’s one that GGG wanted, and it’s a lesser fight than if he were to have chosen Eubank Jr. If Golovkin beats Szeremeta, then he’s supposed to face Canelo in 2021. We’ll see if that happens. If not, then Eubank Jr may have a shot at fighting GGG if he can push hard to get the match.
Back in 2016, Eubank Jr had a chance to fight Golovkin, but the negotiations fizzled out after they dragged on a little too long. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn pulled the rug out from under Eubank Jr’s fight with GGG by offering it instead to welterweight Kell Brook, who readily agreed.
2020 is the ideal time for Eubank Jr to get a fight against Canelo Alvarez, given that he needs an opponent that won’t break the bank for his match behind closed doors. What we don’t know is if Canelo is looking for a particular style that’ll jibe with his.
Eubank Jr. is a volume puncher, who may be the wrong type of opponent for Canelo.
