By Jeff Aronow: Chris Eubank Jr calls his 10-round tune-up fight tonight against Marcus Morrison a “multi-million dollar fight” fight because if he loses the match, he’ll miss out on the massive payday opportunities that will come soon against Gennadiy Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, and Demetrius Andrade.
Tonight, Eubank Jr will be making his first appearance under the helm of his new trainer Roy Jones Jr, so it’s going to be exciting to see if he’s improved.
We’ve heard Eubank Jr repeatedly say how Jones has improved his fighting style, but tonight we’ll see if that’s a reality or not.
Chris Eubank Jr fully focused
Interim WBA middleweight champion Eubank Jr (29-2, 22 KOs) is taking his warm-up match against British domestic-level fighter Morrison (23-3, 16 KOs) seriously as he would if he were challenging for a world title. If Eubank Jr loses to Morrison, he can forget about fighting GGG in 2021 or 2022.
Eubank Jr and Morrison will be fighting on the undercard of the Dereck Chisora vs. Joseph Parker card at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. The fight event will be shown live on DAZN and Sky Box Office.
It’s been 16 months since former IBO super middleweight champion Eubank Jr last saw action against Matt Korobov in December 2019, so he’s taking things slowly in his first fight back.
It’s basically been 26 months since Eubank Jr had a real fight against a past his prime James DeGale in February 2019, winning that clash by a 12 round decision. That was the depleted DeGale that was at the end of his career.
The last real test for Eubank Jr, which he failed, came against George Groves in February 2018. Eubank Jr was totally outclassed by Groves in that fight and exposed for lacking the boxing skills needed for him to win.
Eubank Jr not overlooking Morrison
“Marcus Morrison has two hands and two gloves; this is his big shot,” said Eubank Jr to Behind The Gloves on his fight tonight against Marcus Morrison.
“It’s stupid for me to underestimate him and overlook him. I have the big names on my radar. I want to fight Golovkin at the end of the year, I want to fight for these world titles, I want to fight for these big names. Marcus Morrison isn’t one of those big names.
“So he’s one of these guys that I have to get past to get to those guys. So, he’s a stepping stone or whatever you want to call it. I’ve been out of the ring for a long, long time.
“My promoters wanted me to get in the ring to fight a solid guy, but not super-elite level. You fight a solid guy, and then you step up.
“To me, this [Morrison] is a multi-million dollar fight because if I don’t win this fight, I don’t make that money in my next fight.
“I don’t get that world title, I don’t get those big names, so this fight is massive for me. I’m taking it very, very seriously,” said Eubank Jr.
With the amount of time that Eubank Jr has been away from fighting serious opposition since 2018, you can’t rule out a loss against Morrison.
Golovkin being targeted next
“My promoters have told me that the goal is to get him at the end of the year,” Eubank Jr said about Golovkin.
“If he has a fight scheduled at the end of the year, then we can go in the summer. It’s a fight that they [Eubank Jr’s promoters] are pursuing, so I have to trust that they’ll deliver the goods.
“I’m the WBA interim champion, and Murata is the full WBA champion. That’s a fight that can be made,” said Eubank Jr. “[Jermall] Charlo, Andrade, all of these guys have world titles, and I can beat these guys.
“So if I can’t get Golovkin, there are plenty of other guys we can make these fights with. If I can’t get the Golovkin fight, I want a belt. So it’s anyone of these guys that I can get first,” said Eubank Jr.
Prediction
Eubank Jr will have too much firepower, experience, and talent for Morrison tonight. Look for Eubank Jr to score a stoppage by round six.