By Barry Holbrook: WBA interim middleweight Chris Eubank Jr. will be defending against #15 WBA Sven ‘Batman’ Elbir on October 2nd at a still to be determined venue.
It’s unknown why the 31-year-old Eubank Jr. (30-2, 22 KOs) is taking this lower-level obscure opponent, but somehow the fight fits with the rudderless way Chris’ career has been moved.
The 27-year-old German fighter ‘Batman’ Elbir was beaten by Patrick Wojcicki by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2018 when he attempted to fight a world-level fighter.
With Eubank Jr. about to turn 32 and without ever having won a world title after 10 years as a pro, the situation is starting to look bleak. To say that Eubank Jr. is an underachiever is putting it lightly, as he should have done much more with his career by this point.
“Sources: Sky Sports and Wasserman Boxing (which merged with Team Sauerland) have struck a multi-fight deal that will also include PPV events. The deal kicks off Oct. 2 with Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Sven Elbir,” said @MikeCoppinger.
It’s disappointing to see Eubank Jr. resorting to fighting this level of an opponent in Elbir after ten years as a pro. By this point in Eubank Jr’s career, he should be fighting much better opposition than this, and it’s sad what’s happened to him.
UK boxing fans won’t be pleased if they have to pay to watch Eubank Jr. fight Elbir. Eubank Jr. should be challenging for a world title against WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion Erislandy Lara or WBA ‘Super World’ 160lb champion Ryota Murata instead of pulling Elbir from rock bottom of the world Boxing Association’s rankings.
If Eubank Jr. wins this fight, presumably, the WBA will order him and Lara (28-3, 16 KOs) to fight. It’ll be interesting to see if Eubank Jr. accepts the fight with Lara or if he chooses to wait for the 38-year-old to age a little more before he finally challenges him.
It’s hard to believe that Eubank Jr. was seen as a future star five years ago when he was negotiating for a title shot against middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin. Alas, things haven’t worked out for Eubank Jr.
After taking too much time negotiating the fight with GGG, the fight was pulled out from under him and given to Kell Brook. Who knows what would have happened had Eubank Jr. taken the fight with Golovkin.
As bad as GGG looked against Brook, Eubank Jr. may have beaten him, and his career might have been totally different than it is now.
Since losing out on the fight with Golovkin, Eubank Jr. has done little, losing to George Groves and beating these fighters:
- JJ McDonagh
- James DeGale
- Matt Korobov
- Marcus Morrison
Eubank Jr. looked like a faded fighter in his last fight against Morrison last May. This wasn’t the impressive Eubank Jr. that we’d seen earlier in his career, and he was fortunate not to get knocked out by the much stronger Morrison.
You could see that Eubank Jr. has aged badly in the last five years, and he no longer looks like the guy that he once was.
If this is the level that Eubank Jr. will be fighting for the remainder of his career, it’s sad. What a waste.
You wonder if things had been different had Eubank Jr. had stayed with Eddie Hearn and allowed him to guide his career down a logical path that could have led to world titles.
If Eubank Jr. turns in another lackluster performance against Elbir as he did against Morrison, he might want to think about hanging up the gloves because he’s not going anywhere. If Eubank Jr. does fight Lara, he’s likely going to get drilled and sent into retirement.