Chris Eubank Jr likes the idea of facing Kell Brook in a warm-up fight for his next promoters at Sauerland. The former IBO super-middleweight champion Eubank Jr (29-2, 22 KOs) wants to get some ring rust off from his year layoff before challenging for a world title at 160 against possibly Gennadiy Golovkin, Ryota Murata, or Jermall Charlo.
If Eubank Jr is serious about wanting to challenge Gennadiy Golovkin for his IBF middleweight title this year, he’s going to need to fight someone with more talent than Liam Williams and Kell Brook.
Those guys aren’t going to help Eubank Jr prepare for Golovkin. They might help Eubank Jr get ready for a limited champion like Ryota Murate, but not a talented guy like GGG.
Eubank Jr’s promoter Kalle Sauerland thinks welterweight Brook (39-3, 27 KOs) or Liam Williams would be good options because they’re well known in the UK, and that’s where Chris plans on fighting next.
Brook, 34, is coming off a fourth-round knockout loss to WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford last November. It’s not going to interest some fans at seeing the middleweight Eubank Jr taking on a welterweight in Brook, who is coming off a knockout defeat.
The promoters for Williams (23-2-1, 18 KOs) will likely choose to match him against WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade next rather than put him in with Eubank Jr.
If Eubank Jr wants to fight Williams, he’ll need to wait until after he challenges Andrade, which means he could be coming off a loss when he faces him. It might not be worth it for Eubank to fight Williams at that point, especially if he’s knocked out by Andrade.
Kalle Sauerland: I put Kell Brook out there, I thought that was an interesting one and Liam Williams. But Liam Williams says he’s fighting [Demetrius] Andrade, but we can talk afterward. But what do you think about Kell Brook?”
Chris Eubank Jr: “So you’ve got those two names.”
Sauerland: “Creative match-making, that’s what I call it.”
Eubank Jr: “You’ve brought two fights up, and now everyone is talking him. It’s a fun fight with Kell. We’ve had our back and forth over the years. I’m sure it’s a fight in Britain that people would love to see. So if you want to throw them [Brook and Liam Williams] in there with me, I’m not going to say, ‘no.'”
Sauerland: “It’s just in terms of being a big UK name. The other one that’s being talked about a lot is Liam Williams. He’s a great up and coming fighter, but he’s got that world title fight coming.
“They reached out to me, and I reached out back. I never heard back from his promoters. That’s why we’ll keep talking, but I think they have a fight with Andrade first.”
Eubank Jr: “From what he’s saying, from what I’m hearing, I’m the guy he [Williams] wants. So if he’s a man of his word, if the things he’s talking about are true, he’d take the fight with me before he takes the fight with Andrade. It’s probably a bigger money fight for him.”
Sauerland: “Money-wise for sure. Negotiation-wise, I’d have to say that he would be advised to do the Andrade fight first.”
Eubank Jr: “I don’t see him [Williams] winning that fight, so that would ruin the hype.”
Sauerland: “That’s another thing. I’m putting myself in their camp’s shoes, and they believe they beat Andrade. They’re much more clever if they beat Andrade and negotiate with us. Your last victory in the UK was against James DeGale.
“You wiped out James DeGale. He was a household pay-per-view name. Last year was a COVID year and everything, but that was the last one. So you’re coming off that pedestal.
“You’ve had some great wins over here, but at the same time commercially, you’re in another league at the moment. So my advice would be to take that world title fight, and you’d get a bigger chunk of the pie.
“If you were to make that fight now. It’s not 50-50 as Frank was saying. That’s just a promoter talking. I think there are a lot of great fights.
“Kell Brook, Liam Williams is the best of great domestic fights. That’s all great too. But the big one for me this year is GGG. That’s one that has to get made. That’s the big one, you know?”
It sounds like Eubank Jr has two poor options for his next fight. The fact that Liam Williams’ management isn’t responding back to Sauerland doesn’t sound too good. It might be wise for Kalle to look in another direction.
There are plenty of talented middleweights that Eubank Jr can fight, who have more ability than Liam Williams and more size than the smallish Kell Brook.
These are better options for Eubank Jr to fight:
- Jaime Munguia
- Carlos Gongora
- Sergey Derevyanchenko
- Maciej Sulecki
- Ronald Ellis
- Zhanibek Alimkhanuly
- Kamil Szeremeta
- Kanat Islam
- Esquiva Falcao
- Magomed Madiev