Eubank Jr. convinced winning IBO title will lead to big fights

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Chris Eubank Jr. (23-1, 18 KOs) has his mind made up that by beating IBO super middleweight champion Renold Quinlan (11-1, 7 KOs) this Saturday, it’s going to big fights against the likes of Andre Ward, James DeGale, George Groves and Gennady Golovkin.

Eubank Jr. sees the IBO strap being as good as the other world titles and having the same weight. I’m not sure that it’s seen that way, but Eubank Jr. seems to believe it’s going to be a real door opener for him. A lot of boxing fans see this as another example of Eubank Jr. not seeing things clearly and making another bad decision with his boxing career.

He’s already passed up fights against Billy Joe Saunders and Gennady Golovkin and instead fought these guys: Tom Doran, Nick Blackwell, Tony Jeter and Dmitri Chudinov. On Saturday, Eubank Jr. will be fighting the obscure fighter Renold Quinlan on ITV PPV at the Olympia in London, England. Out of all the possible options available to Eubank Jr, this is not a great one. That’s why I have a feeling that Eubank Jr. won’t be facing the likes of DeGale, Groves or Golovkin in the future. I see him continuing to underachieve with his boxing career, as he takes the safe pick to get sure thing wins.

Eubank Jr. said this to Fighthype.com about his fight against Quinlan and what winning the IBO title will do for his career:

“Feeling strong, and feeling ready,” said Eubank Jr. “This is my time. The IBO has been held by some of the best fighters in boxing – Mayweather, Pacquiao, Lennox Lewis, Klitschko, Golovkin is the current IBO middleweight champion. You can’t say anything. This is the first step in a long beautiful career for me. I’m going in to in the world title, and go and challenge for the other world titles. It’s a big moment for me. In boxing you can’t plan. There is no solid track. I can’t say if I in the IBO title I’m just going to stay at super middleweight, because obviously I’ve got some serious business to take care of at middleweight also. By putting myself in position as the IBO world champion, it enables me to then challenge the other super middleweight world champions. It puts me in position to fight at middleweight as well. There are so many options for me. Whichever one comes first. After I do what I do on February 4th, I’ll pick my best option. Once I win this world title, I’m coming for the other guys,” said Eubank.

If Eubank Jr. is able to do anything after he beats Quinlan on Saturday, it probably won’t be due to him winning the IBO title. I don’t see that belt as being a prestigious enough title to lure the top fighters into fighting Eubank Jr If they want to fight him, it will be due to his father’s name rather than because of the IBO strap.

Eubank Jr. is kind of like in the same situation as other sons of famous fighters. Eubank Jr. is famous due to his father Chris Eubank, who was a very good fighter during his career and much better fighter than his son. Eubank was faster, more powerful, and more willing to mix it up. He was a fluid fighter that fought on instinct. He was a natural born fighter.

With Eubank Jr, he fights in a herky-jerky manner, almost like an automobile that is running out of gas, starting and stopping. Eubank Jr. is nothing like his dad with the way he fights. The only thing similar about Eubank Jr. is the way he enters the ring like his dad with a lot of posing. But once his starts fighting, he’s nothing like his dad.

Eubank Jr. will probably get one of the top fighters in the 168lb division to agree to fight him if he and his dad don’t negotiate too hard and wind up with nothing like they did with the Golovkin fight. They’ve got to learn to wrap up negotiations quickly, because the other promoters might not have endless amounts of patients to sit through months and months of negotiations. Whichever top fighter Eubank Jr. gets, they probably won’t be fighting him due to his IBO trinket.

They’re going to want to fight him because they’ll see it as an easy win over a badly flawed fighter. They’ll see it as a fight that a lot of boxing fans will want to see. Again, not because of anything Eubank Jr. has done during his own career, because he’s done nothing. They’ll want the fight with him because boxing fans will want to see the fight due to Eubank Jr. being the son of a former world champion Eubank.

“Chris Eubank Jr. is nothing special,” said Quinlan. “I don’t want it to go 12 rounds. If I see a shot, I’m going to take it. I’m going to take control over the fight and see what happens in the fight,” said Quinlan.

That would be really surprising if Quinlan wins this fight. Anything is possible. Quinlan did beat Daniel Geale. Eubank Jr. is not far from Geale’s talent level. Eubank Jr. might be a little bit better than him, but not much. If Quinlan is able to take the fight to Eubank Jr. and outwork him the way Billy Joe Saunders did in 2014, then it’s definitely possible that he could beat him.

Quinlan is going to need to start fast on Saturday night because if he lets Eubank Jr. get some momentum, he might wind up getting a knockout. Eubank Jr. isn’t much of a puncher despite the fact that he has a lot of knockouts. He wins most of his knockouts on his high volume punching rather than on his power.

Eubank Jr. likes to throw a lot of uppercuts, and he’s vulnerable because of that bad habit. When a fighter throws as many uppercuts as Eubank Jr. does, it leaves him wide open to overhand rights to the head. Quinlan would be wise to go head-hunting on Saturday night.