Is 2017 the year when outspoken former British middleweight champ Chris Eubank Junior gets in with the elite fighters? Once again, the once-beaten contender is saying all the right things; stating how he wants to fight not only middleweight king Gennady Golovkin but also IBF super-middleweight ruler James DeGale and, in a rematch of his sole pro defeat, WBO middleweight champ Billy Joe Saunders.
Of course we’ve heard it all before from Eubank, and he has yet to deliver by taking a fight with one of the proven best in the world (the points loss to Saunders aside), but the 27-year-old, in speaking with The Independent, insists that after he defeats Renold Quinlan to take the IBO super-middleweight belt on February 4, big things will happen for him.
“The main three guys I want at the moment are DeGale, Saunders and Golovkin,” Eubank Jnr said. “Obviously winning this [IBO] super-middleweight world title puts me in a position to challenge these super-middleweights. DeGale is seen as one of the best, if not the best super-middleweight in the world, and I think that’s embarrassing in my opinion. As everybody saw the other night, the guy is just easy to hit. He comes out after a 12 round fight and he’s got no teeth – that’s embarrassing in my opinion.”
And on and on Eubank went about how he would beat DeGale. As for Saunders, the man who handily out-pointed Eubank a couple of years ago, Eubank says he will not rest until he avenges the loss, and that he is more experienced and capable of doing so today. As for GGG, Eubank stated how the feared middleweight is “not the truth,” and that he has “so many weaknesses in his boxing style that I believe I can fully exploit.” Eubank said he would “love that fight.”
Okay, so enough with the talking; will Eubank actually agree terms and fight one of these guys? Never mind all three, it would be something if Eubank fought just one of the names he has called out. But does he want to fight GGG, the middleweight ruler, or does he want to fight as a super-middleweight?
Right now, all three of the names Eubank called out would be favoured to beat him; as he has never defeated a fighter of the calibre of Golovkin, DeGale or Saunders. Eubank talks a great game, we know that. And he can fight. How well he can fight against the proven best, we don’t know. Will we actually get to find out this year? After all his talk, it’s about time Eubank stepped up to the plate, don’t you agree?
