Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Renold Quinlan – Results

BoxingNews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Chris Eubank Jr. (24-1, 19 KOs) had an easy time tonight in defeating IBO super middleweight champion Renold Quinlan (11-2, 7 KOs) by a 10th round knockout to capture his IBO 168lb title on Saturday night at the Olympia in London, England.

The referee Howard John Foster halted the fight at 2:07 of round 10 after Quinlan took a flurry of head shots while trapped against the ropes. I didn’t see much in the way of boxing skills from Quinlan or Eubank Jr. tonight.

It was a case of two badly flawed fighters battling it out, and the one that was a little less flawed wound up winning the fight. Quinlan was completely passive in the fight. He did not let his hands go. He was standing around letting Eubank Jr. do all the punching without firing back anything of substance.

Late in round 3, Quinlan retreated to the ropes and let Eubank Jr. throw a boatload of punches while he just stood there. When I saw that move, I realized why Eubank Jr. and his father had been so eager to fight Quinlan. They realized that he couldn’t fight and was little more than a paper champion. Good fighters don’ t continually retreat to the ropes and cover up like sparring partners the way that Quinlan did again and again tonight.

In round 4, Quinlan once again backed up against the ropes late in the round and just covered up and let Eubank Jr. tee off on him with jarring shots to the head. Eubank Jr. missed most of his wild uppercuts, but he was still able to land enough of his big power shots to easily win the rounds.

I’m not sure what the deal was with Quinlan, because he fought like he had no sense at all. He just seemed like his mind wasn’t connected properly tonight. Quinlan fought like a novice rather a world champion. I know the IBO belt isn’t seen by a lot of boxing fans as a real world title belt, but you would still expect more from a belt holder than what we saw from Quinlan. He was just horribly awful from round 1 until the bitter end in the 10th.

At the start of round 5, Eubank Jr. threw wild left hook from a mile away at the start of the round. It was such an embarrassingly amateurish punch to throw, but it was what Eubank Jr. was doing all night at the start of each round. Eubank Jr. was coming out each round, and telegraphing a left hook or uppercut from the outside. Sometimes Eubank Jr. would land the shot and the crowd would go crazy, but he looked so amateurish with those punches. A good fighter would knock Eubank Jr. cold if he tried that same trick at the start of the round against them. But he was able to do that tonight because he was facing a mediocre fighter in Quinlan rather than a talent like Gennady Golovkin.

The fight was on the verge of being stopped in round 9 as well when Quinlan covered up while against the ropes and wound up taking a lot of head shots. Quinlan fought poorly throughout the fight. Quinlan rarely threw punches. He mostly just standing and looking at Eubank Jr. without throwing much of anything.

When Quinlan did throw shots, it was mainly just jabs. In looking at Quinlan’s past fights, he always fights this way, which you can argue is why he was selected by Eubank Jr’s management. They picked out a guy that doesn’t throw punches to fight rather than someone that would give them total headaches like Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, who likes to throw punches and does so all long.

I think Eubank Jr. would have been schooled if he was in the ring with Ramirez tonight.
Quinlan failed to learn from his mistakes that he made in the fight tonight. Each time he would tie up with Eubank Jr., he would let him throw punches without throwing anything back. Eubank Jr. was nailing Quinlan frequently with rabbit shots while they were in a clinch. Quinlan should have learned that if he was going to clinch Eubank Jr., then he should have been hitting him immediately, because he was going to be getting hit. Unfortunately for Quinlan, he never figured that out. He just seemed to be submissive. That’s weird way to be in a fight, especially when you’re the IBO super middleweight champion.

Eubank Jr. got away with a lot of sloppy fighting with him throwing wide lead left hooks from the outside, and Quinlan being too slow and mediocre to do anything about it. A good fighter would nail Eubank Jr. if he fought in the same amateurish way. If Eubank Jr. tried to throw a left hook from a mile away against Golovkin, he’d be knocked out with a right hand. The fight would be over right then and there.

Eubank Jr. showed a ton of bad habits tonight against Quinlan. In between rounds, Eubank Jr. wasn’t even looking at his father when he was trying to give him pointers. Eubank Jr. looked away and appeared not to be even listening. Eubank Jr. came across like he didn’t need to be told anything. That’s not a good attitude for a fighter to have, because it suggests that they think they know everything.

In looking at how sloppy Eubank Jr. was tonight, he clearly doesn’t know enough to beat the good fighters at 160 and 160. Yeah, Eubank Jr. beat Quinlan, but this was a fight that was won based off scouting and match-making rather than him beating someone that is actually good. Quinlan was obviously well chosen by Eubank Jr. and his father Chris Eubank Sr. They obviously saw weakness with Quinlan and decided to fight him rather than one of the better champions at 168 like Gilberto Ramirez and James DeGale.

Eubank Jr. moved up in weight at the right time with Badou Jack moving up to 175, and the WBA having a weak champion in Tyron Zeuge and George Groves and Fedor Chudinov about to fight for the WBA Super World super middleweight belt. Neither of those fighters are great talents. The 168lb division is going through an incredibly weak period right now.

“This is history repeating itself,” said Eubank Jr. after the fight. “It was like hitting concrete. This is just the beginning. Now I’m a worldwide champion. This is my ticket to challenge all the other world champions. Of course, I want Golovkin. Of course, I want Saunders. DeGale, I want the rest of those teeth. I’m confident at middleweight or super middleweight. It’s just the beginning of a long road ahead. Let’s make these fights happen. I want all the major names in the division. Two of the biggest fights in boxing are at middleweight [Golovkin and Saunders]. I want Billy Joe Saunders and I want Golovkin,” said Eubank Jr.

Eubank Jr. would stand a chance against Saunders, but he’s got to get in line before he takes that fight. Saunders has to defend his World Boxing Organization middleweight title against his #1 WBO mandatory challenger Adtandil Khurtsidze next, and he might not win that fight. I’m not sure that Saunders will want to fight Eubank Jr. after he loses to Khurtsidze.

Golovkin is way too good for Eubank Jr. in my opinion. Based off what I saw of Eubank Jr. tonight, he wouldn’t last more than three rounds against Golovkin. Eubank Jr. has too many holes in his game. Quinlan was able to hit Eubank Jr. whenever he let his hands go, but for some reason, he just wouldn’t throw punches.

If I’m Eubank Jr’s father, I would keep him in the slow lane until he learns how to fight, because he’s not ready to face the good fighters at 168 like DeGale or Ramirez, and he DEFINITELY isn’t ready to fight a talented fighter like Golovkin. If they throw Eubank Jr. in the ring with Golovkin, they had better make sure they have a white towel handy to throw in the ring when he starts getting royally hammered by GGG, because it’s going to be brutally one-sided.

Eubank Jr. doesn’t know how to fight in a professional manner in my opinion and I think Golovkin would obliterate him in lightning fashion. Eubank Jr. is more like a novice at this point with a ton of bad habits that he needs to unlearn. I know he and his father Eubank Sr. want to fight the top guys at 160 and 168 but when that does happen, it’s going to end badly for him.