By Scott Gilfoid: In what has to be construed as an odd backwards move for his career, once beaten #2 WBA middleweight contender Chris Eubank Jr. (21-1, 16 KOs) will be slamming his career into reverse gear when he faces British middleweight champion Nick Blackwell (19-3-1, 8 KOs) on March 5 in Kent.
It’s a very strange move by the 26-year-old Eubank Jr. because he recently became the WBA mandatory challenger to WBA “regular” 160lb champion Daniel Jacobs last December when he beat Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan by a 7th round stoppage. The logical move for Eubank Jr. from there would be either to challenge Jacobs for his WBA title or at least take on one of the top contenders in the division. The fact that Eubank Jr. is choosing to face Blackwell instead of Jacobs is a very curious one. Eubank Jr. wasted his time in becoming the WBA mandatory because he’s not taking advantage of it right now.
Instead, Eubank Jr. has slipped his career into full reverse and is gunning it going backwards to face a guy that he should have been fighting years ago instead of now. All I can think of when I see a fight like this is maybe Eubank Jr. has confidence issues or a problem with his ambition. I don’t know what else to think about when I see a guy taking his career backwards in the manner that Eubank Jr. is.