Chris Eubank: ‘Those who did not enter the World Boxing Super Series are suspect’

Chris Eubank

CHRIS EUBANK insists there should be ‘pressure’ on the super-middleweights who did not enter the World Boxing Super Series as his son prepares to fight Arthur Abraham for a spot in the tournament.

Eubank Jnr meets Abraham at the Wembley Arena on Saturday and the winner will join the likes of WBA champion George Groves, Callum Smith and Jamie Cox in the Super Series.

However, super-middleweight world champions Gilberto Ramirez and James DeGale – who is recovering from major surgery, so could not enter anyway – are not included and Eubank feels questions should be asked of them.

“The current boxing aficionados, what they are saying is that perhaps we are not real. But the World Boxing Super Series gives any fighter the platform to prove what they truly are,” he said.

“There is no escape and the best fight the best. We cannot dodge anybody and they can’t dodge us.

“Those who did no enter the tournament? They are suspect. Who are we talking about? James DeGale. Suspect.

“Now the pressure and the spotlight should be put on those who are not involved in the Super Series.

“Groves came out and picked his opponent for a great domestic fight. Smith came out and picked [Erik] Skoglund โ€“ everybody is stepping up to the plate.”

Eubank Snr was recently in Monaco for the Super Series Draft Gala, where the seeded fighters select their opponents for the quarter-finals. Eubank was there to represent the winner of his son’s fight with Abraham, and he selected unbeaten Turkish slugger Avni Yildrim.

Yildrim has been tipped as the dark horse of the 168lb class, though Eubank Snr is not concerned – not even after the pair went face to face.

chris eubank jr

“He was looking at me like I’m his opponent โ€“ I think he thinks he is going to fight me. When we squared up to take a picture at the end, he was looking at me with that look of a fighter,” he said.

“I thought ‘hold on a minute โ€“ don’t look at me like that’. It took me back to my fighting days and I said to him ‘back in the day, I would’ve cooked you’.

“He has been tipped as dark horse, of course he is a dark horse but my son is a stallion. Dark horses don’t compete with stallions.”

After he backed out of a fight with unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin last year, Junior was slammed by media and fans alike.

Senior believes that his son’s entry into the Super Series exonerates him from claims of cowardice, and made a surprising assertion that Junior would enter the tournament again next year, at a different weight.

“There are particular people who have been trying to stop us from proving that we are the best. They disseminate these stories that we are not real, that we talk but then sidestep,” he said.

“But the Super Series is a fantastic medium and conduit because not only will it make Junior a rich man, it also allows him to capture and unify belts.

“He has the ability to come out of these with three belts and the Muhammad Ali trophy. It also ring-fences him so he can’t be touched by others. They have their own lane, the Super Series. So Junior can continue to fight and give the public what they want.

“Next year, in the next tournament, there is going to be a middleweight tournament [this has not been confirmed]. Junior will come down to middleweight and win that one too, and clean up the belts at that weight too.”

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