By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it doesn’t look like the boxing fans are going to be getting much value for their money in the co-feature bout in this month’s Sky Box Office pay-per-view card head-lined by Kell Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) vs. Diego Chaves (23-2-1, 19 KOs) on October 24th at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, UK.
Instead of a nice competitive match-up between fighters evenly matched, #1 WBA middleweight contender Chris Eubank Jr. (19-1, 14 KOs) has what amounts to be a mismatch against 39-year-old American Tony Jeter (24-4-1, 14 KOs) as the co-feature bout.
It’s up to the British public to determine whether that’s a good enough fight for them to want to shell out their hard-earned money to pay to see this card. I know for me, I’m not interested enough in the main event for me to want to pay to see Brook fight an opponent with a record of 1-2-1 in his last four fights, and the Eubank Jr-Jeter mismatch in the co-main event doesn’t make up for what we’re not getting in the main event.
This will be Eubank the 26-year-old Eubank Jr’s first fight with Matchroom Sport. Besides fighting on the Brook-Chaves fight card on October 24th, Eubank Jr will also be fighting on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte card on December 12th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7btNwLFpaU8
The opponent their looking at matching Eubank Jr against is #11 WBA Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan (21-1, 14 KOs). The 31-year-old O’Sullivan is the same fighter that Billy Joe Saunders easily whipped two years in beating him by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 120-109, 120-109 and 119-110.
Eubank Jr-O’Sullivan is about as bad a mismatch as Eubank Jr-Jeter in my book. I’m just really surprised that these two guys are the fighters that Hearn is digging up for Eubank Jr rather than some live opponents like Tureano Johnson, Arif Magomedov, Dominic Wade, Willie Monroe Jr, Antoine Douglas, Jorge Sebastian Heiland, Matt Korobov, Sam Soliman or Hassan N’Dam. Is it so much to ask to have Hearn to get one of these guys for Eubank Jr to fight instead of the fodder that he’s going to have Eubank Jr fight on October 24th and December 12th?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nkeKox24RU
I’m frankly surprised that Jeter is the guy that Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn has come up with for Eubank Jr to face for this fight. We’d heard that Eubank Jr was going to be facing a talented and well known top 15 contender, but I didn’t think it would be Jeter. I mean, he’s not well-known, at least not in the U.S where he comes from.
In my view, Jeter isn’t talented either. He’s ranked #13 WBA, #13 WBC, and #15 by the WBO, but he was recently knocked out in the 2nd round by Patrick Nielsen in 2014, and by Jose Felix in the 5th round in 2011.
Jeter also has losses to little known fighters named James Shedrick and Kwame Bumpus. But Jeter’s loss to Nielsen was especially troubling, because he folded like a cheap suit almost immediately in that fighter.
Nielsen was just punching Jeter around like a punching bag before knocking him out in the 2nd round. It wasn’t competitive from the moment the fight started in the 1st round.
This is a huge step down for Eubank Jr from his recent fight against Dmitry Chudinov last February, and even that was a mismatch. But heck, I’d rather see a rematch between Eubank Jr and Chudinov instead of seeing the Eubank Jr-Jeter mismatch. This is a God awful fight.
I can’t believe this is the opponent that Hearn has found for Eubank Jr. to fight on a pay-per-view card. I wouldn’t mind a fight like Eubank Jr vs. Jeter if Eubank Jr was coming off a defeat to the likes of Billy Joe Saunders, but that’s not the case.
This is an important card because it’s on Sky Box Office, and the fights are supposed to be competitive on paper in order to attract fans. I see this fight as a terrible mismatch, but perhaps the casual boxing fans that will be paying to see it on Sky Box Office will be clueless about Jeter’s past fights and think that it’s a swell fight.
If they think Jeter is the best fighter since sliced bread, then they’ll be more apt to be impressed with Eubank Jr after he beats the stuffing’s out of him. Unfortunately, it won’t be a big deal for Eubank Jr, because you can make an argument that at least 30 other top contenders in the division could do the same thing to Jeter. That’s a conservative estimate on my part. I think the 50 contenders would all beat Jeter.
“He hasn’t fought someone like me who will give 100 per cent of themselves against him,” said Jeter. “I won’t leave anything in the dressing room. My will and determination are my greatest assets. Chris is a quality operator – you don’t get a piece of a World title without being a class act. But that just makes it an even bigger opportunity for me; I’ll have a win against a huge name on my record and I’ll land on the World scene in a big way.”
Comments are closed.