By Jim Strobridge: Chris Eubank Jr will have the option to challenge Demetrius Andrade for his WBO middleweight title later this year in the UK if he wins his fight this Saturday night against Marcus Morrison.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn says he’d be open to bringing the unbeaten WBO 160-lb champion Andrade (30-0, 18 KOs) to the UK to defend against Eubank Jr (29-2, 22 KOs), but he’s taking a wait and see approach to Chris’ fight this Saturday.
Eubank Jr. hasn’t fought close to two years, and he’ll be taking on the always tough domestic-level fighter Morrison (23-3, 16 KOs) in a 10-rounder on Saturday on Sky Box Office at the Manchester Arena in Manchester. England.
Hearn wants Eubank Jr to challenge Andrade
The former IBO super middleweight champion Eubank Jr has only fought once since moving down to 160 in his second-round stoppage of Matt Korobov in December 2019.
Eubank Jr has talked of wanting to fight for a world title against Jermall Charlo, Ryota Murata, or Gennady Golovkin. But if he’s given a chance to fight Andrade or his WBO belt, he’ll obviously grab the opportunity with both hands.
“Yes, Eubank against Andrade, I like this fight,” said Eddie Hearn on Instagram. “Let’s see what happens on Saturday with Chris Eubank [against Marcus Morrison], but I have no problems bringing Demetrius Andrade to the UK to fight Chris Eubank Jr for the world title.
“I’m actually looking forward to seeing Chris Eubank Jr back in the ring this weekend. I mean, no one is really giving Marcus Morrison much of a chance. He’s coming off a great win in Italy [against Shakan Pitters], but Eubank has done like one round in two years,” said Hearn.
We don’t know what we’re going to see from Eubank Jr after his long spell out of the ring. He’s 31 now and coming off a terribly long period out of the ring.
You can’t rule out an upset on Saturday night if Morrison brings his A-game, as he’s won his last seven fights since losing a close eight-round points decision to journeyman Alistair Warren (11-29-5, 4 KOs) in 2018.
Eubank Jr will need to be at his best this Saturday for him to beat Morrison because this figures to be a tough match for him. If Eubank doesn’t bring his A-game, we could see an upset.
Andrade vs. Eubank Jr will be huge
Billy Joe Saunders didn’t do anything special to defeat Eubank Jr in 2014 other than work hard in every single round of the fight. Eubank Jr has a tendency to showboat and coast at times, and Saunders took advantage of that to beat him by a 12 round decision.
Andrade, 32, didn’t look so good in his victory over WBO mandatory Liam Williams on April 17th in Hollywood, Florida.
After a rough start, Williams fought well down the stretch, hurting Andrade in the ninth round, and giving him a lot to think about.
The pressure from Williams wore Andrade out, causing him to struggle at times. Williams clearly wasn’t in the same league as Demetrius talent-wise, but his ability to keep pressuring him made the fight more competitive than it should have been.
Hearn needs to put Andrade in with some of the top names at 160 or 168, as he’s getting older and his career is passing him by.
Unfortunately, there’s been no interest from top champions like Gennady Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, Canelo Andrade, or Billy Joe Saunders to fight Demetrius.
Eubank Jr might be as good as it gets for Andrade, so he’ll have to take what’s offered to him and hope that someday one of the popular fighters will want to fight him.
It’s predictable that when one of the big names does decide to face Demetrius, he’ll over-the-hill and no longer capable of potentially beating them.