By Barry Holbrook: Chris Eubank Jr and his new promoter Kalle Sauerland hope to set-up a fight against IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin in the UK in 2021. They believe the time is right to make that fight happen with GGG (41-1-1, 36 KOs) this year.

The German promoter Sauerland signed Eubank Jr to a long-term deal last, and he wants to keep him active this year.

Eubank Jr (29-2, 22 KOs) will be his first match for Sauerland promotions in Easter in a tune-up bout, possibly against Kell Brook, Liam Smith, or Liam Williams.

Those are obviously long shots, as they’re not going to like the idea of being a warm-up opponent for WBA interim middleweight champion Eubank.

Golovkin, 38, has fought once before in the UK, beating a prime Kell Brook in September 2016 in London, England.

That fight attracted a lot of intention from British boxing fans and helped increase GGG’s star power, even though he was facing a blown-up welterweight in Brook.

“Golovkin is the No 1 target. GGG is a legend, but he’s there for the taking,” said Sauerland to Sky Sports on his plans on matching Eubank Jr against Golovkin. “It’s a fight you could do in the UK. Golovkin has fought here before.”

Money talks and GGG will likely agree to the idea of facing Eubank Jr in the UK or wherever as long as it’s a fight that makes financial sense. DAZN would probably be overjoyed at showing the Golovkin vs. Eubank Jr fight on their platform, as it would be the first interesting fight for the Kazak fighter since he signed with them in 2019.

Golovkin is halfway through his six-fight contract with DAZN, and this is all he has to show for it:

Steve Rolls
Sergiy Derevyanchenko
Kamil Szeremeta

Golovkin wanted to set-up a third fight with Canelo Alvarez, a match that DAZN wants in the worst way, but it’s not happening.

For whatever reason, Canelo is cool with the idea of fighting Golovkin, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that he will NEVER fight him again.

Although Canelo throws out the line, he’ll fight Golovkin again if the fans want it but then doesn’t follow up. Canelo clearly has no intention of fighting GGG again.

Interestingly, Canelo is doing the same thing Golovkin is, taking easy fights on DAZN that the U.S boxing public has no interest in seeing. Rather than Canelo fighting Golovkin a third time, which would bring in massive new subscribers for DAZN, he’s fought these fighters:

Rocky Fielding
Sergey Kovalev
Callum Smith
Daniel Jacobs

DAZN isn’t getting much out of Canelo and Golovkin with them both fighting on their platform, but against fighters that the boxing public isn’t demanding they fight.

Eubank Jr believes he’s got the beating of Golovkin, and he thinks he can do it by outworking the 38-year-old. He may be right.

Golovkin looked tired and slow in his win over Szeremeta last December. GGG won the fight by a seventh-round knockout, but he looked exhausted.

“I know I can beat him. I know that I have the tools and the style to take this guy out,” said Eubank Jr to Sky Sports about his belief he’ll defeat Golovkin.

“My speed, my tenacity? I don’t think he would be able to deal with it,” Eubank Jr continued. “Because of my style, I would stop him [Golovkin] due to the pure amount of punches. Whether it’s a cut or he gets tired, stopping him would definitely be on the cards,” said Eubank Jr.

There’s an excellent chance that Eubank Jr would stop Golovkin if the two of them fight this year, as there’s a world of difference between them in the speed, work rate, and age.

Eubank Jr has a much better engine; he throws many more punches and so much faster than Golovkin.