By Charles Brun: Chris Eubank Jr. says Billy Joe Saunders is in no position to be demanding £5million for a fight against him after the way he quit on his stool against Canelo Alvarez last time out on May 8th. That’s a lot of green for a fighter to be asking for after coming off a stoppage loss.
As far as Eubank Jr. (30-2, 22 KOs) is concerned, the former two-division world champion Saunders (30-1, 14 KOs) will get what’s given.
Eubank Jr., 31, recently threw a bone to the down in his luck Billy Joe in the act of kindness following his loss to Canelo four months ago. Surprisingly, Saunders got his back up over the offer and fired back with a demand of 5 million for the fight.
Saunders’s request for a big purse took Eubank Jr. by a complete surprise, as he was charitable in helping one of his fellow countrymen in his hour of need.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Saunders was trying to take off Eubank Jr’s whole hand with that bite. With Saunders’ comeback request, you can understand Eubank Jr’s dismay because he’s not what he was expecting.
Eubank Jr. says Billy Joe’s dream of getting five million is NOT going to happen. Saunders will need to understand his place and wait until Eubank Jr’s management decide on the money split.
Saunders is not in a position to demand
The loss that Saunders suffered puts him in a weakened position to make demands for purses against Eubank Jr. or any fighters for that matter.
It’s not as if Saunders looked brilliant at the end of the Canelo fight, sitting on his stool, not appearing to argue with his corner when they chose to pull him out.
As Eubank Jr. points out, Saunders doesn’t have many options, given that he’s coming off a loss in which he quit on his stool rather than going out on his shield.
Did Saunders really have an eye injury?
As far as the supposed eye injury that the 32-year-old southpaw Saunders suffered against Canelo, Eubank Jr. doesn’t believe there was any such thing.
The former IBO super middleweight champion Eubank Jr. thinks Saunders suffered a black eye only and that he chose to quit after the eighth round rather than go through the indignities of being poleaxed by Canelo.
Had there been a real eye injury, Saunders would have shown the pictures and had the doctor’s not shown to the public, says Eubank Jr. Since that didn’t happen, Eubank Jr. believes it was nothing more than an old fashioned quit job by Saunders.
Eubank Jr: Saunders will get what he’s given
“He’s demanding £5million. He’s not in a position to demand anything. Quitting vs. Canelo after saying he’d die before he took a knee. He’ll get what he’s given. I’m the A-side. Once he understands that, then we can talk,” said Eubank Jr. to Talksport.
“He has no belt, he has no power in the sport, so he can’t be saying he wants £5m.
“It’s not something that’s super important to me,” Eubank Jr. said about the need of fighting Saunders to avenge his loss from 2014. “He needs me.
“I’m his only option. He has literally no one else to fight. Whereas I have an untold amount of names and fights that are available to me over the next year,” said Eubank Jr.
Next month, Eubank Jr. (30-2, 22 KOs) will be facing German middleweight Sven Ebir (18-1, 14 KOs) on October 2nd at the Wembley Arena in London, England. It’s a nice little stay busy fight for Eubank Jr. to get some rounds in against the capable Elbir.
Down the road, Eubank Jr. has his sights set on challenging IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin for his title.
“Golovkin has run out of guys to fight,” Eubank Jr. said. “Who’s he going to make the most money with or against? That’s me.”
Eubank Jr. may be right about him making the most money for GGG, unless the Kazakhstan fighter wants to take a big risk against Demetrius Andrade or Jermall Charlo.