AFTER the best performance of his career on Saturday night Chris Eubank Jr is now free to explore other broadcasting avenues for future fights.
Having fought on Sky in his last five fights the 33-year-old can listen to any and all offers which will come his way in the coming days and weeks.
His revenge over Liam Smith, in the same venue where ‘Beefy’ sizzled eight months ago in stopping Eubank in four rounds, was arguably the finest performance of Eubank’s career. The middleweight non-title contest was stopped by referee Kevin Parker midway through the 10th round after Smith, who had been down in round four, had little left to offer other than courage.
Eubank’s promoter Kalle Sauerland spoke to Boxing News late on Saturday night, and summed up the performance of Eubank, 33-3 (24), in one word.
“Masterclass,” he said.
“Fantastic tactics from the first bell. The first couple of rounds on the inside [were] rough, fair but rough. and then [he] switched it on from the third in every department. The movement, the defence, full credit to Liam, he went down in the fourth and then the barrage of punches in the fifth showed why he’s such a warrior and full credit to him. He’s been a big part of these fights. [It was] his night in January, we had our night tonight.”
Indeed, the display from Eubank was very difficult to pick holes in. The over-eagerness, the wild swings, and the showboating we have become accustomed to didn’t show up for the most important fight of his career. Instead, Eubank was controlled, measured, disciplined, and looked every inch a world title contender. The win also justified his decision to hire leading American trainer Brian ‘Bomac’ McIntyre to work his corner.
Sauerland believes there were glimpses of what Eubank learned under previous trainer Roy Jones Jr as well.
“You also saw parts of Roy in there as well [such as] the jab,” he said.
“I think what Bomac did fantastically, and don’t forget he had a short time to work with him, was to bring all those dots together, to connect the dots. I can’t wait to look back at it.
“I’ve promoted almost all of Junior’s fights since 2017 and I’ve seen the fights with [Avni] Yildirim, we’ve had tough nights well. Earlier this year we had a tough night. He went off, licked his wounds not [for] too long. He knew what he wanted to do. He’s very stubborn when he’s got a mission. It sounds a bit mad but after the first round there was no way he was going to lose that fight. The mindset was phenomenal. The engine was fantastic.”
Straight after his win attention turned to the future with a number of names a possibility for Eubank’s next fight. The retired Kell Brook, Conor Benn, Gennadiy Golovkin and a trilogy with Liam Smith were either part of questions or answers in the aftermath.
“Of course, there’s lot of options,” Sauerland said.
“We’re not signed to any broadcaster which makes it much easier because some of the options are on different broadcasting platforms. Some with Sky, some with DAZN. It’s a very interesting time. Not gonna worry about that right now. Done enough worrying over the last few months getting this over the line with the different setbacks. Mustn’t forget Chris has been in one hell of a camp. One hell of a camp. He’s probably been in since the day after that loss here in January. He hasn’t stopped. Obviously, Liam’s injuries, the dates going back, he’s had to go through that as well. Mustn’t forget that. If you put that into the performance tonight it just makes it that even more incredible.”
