British middleweight champ Chris Eubank Junior keeps talking about world middleweight king Gennady Golovkin and a potential fight between the two. And Eubank Jr, not at all lacking in confidence and self belief, insists he can beat the feared puncher known as Triple G. In fact, take away Golovkin’s power, Eubank says, and GGG becomes a “slow” fighter with “a weak defence.”
Speaking with Voice Of Sport, 26-year-old Eubank Jr, said the only way Golovkin beats him is by knocking him out; something he insists would not happen if the two fought.
“He [GGG] is seen as the number one guy in my weight division, he’s seen as this unbeatable guy who everyone is scared of and I don’t see that,” Eubank Jr said. “I watch his fights and I see slowness, I see a weak defence. I see great punching power but what happens when a guy takes the punch and says, ‘ok, now what?’ Which is what I will do, if I get hit. Speed kills and for every one punch he throws I am going to be throwing three, four or five punches. So the only way he beats me is if he knocks me out and you are going to have to hit me with a sledgehammer to move me, so that’s where I get my confidence from against a man like that.”
It has been said that “a man like that,” in Golovkin, does indeed possess sledgehammer-like punching power, to both head and body and with either hand. Eubank Jr’s confidence is admirable but he could well be made to eat his words – along with plenty of leather from the unbeaten, 35-0(32) star – if the two do fight any time soon. Eubank Jr tells Voice Of Sport that he intends to “clean up” the domestic scene first – and he makes defence number-one of his British belt against unbeaten Tom Doran on the June 25th Anthony Joshua-Dominic Breazeale card in London – before moving on to the world stage.
I don’t know about you, but I’d be interested in seeing Golovkin defend his collection of titles against the vocal Brit; primarily to see if Eubank Jr, 22-1(17) can live up to his pre-fight promises. Does Eubank Jr really see a “slow” fighter in GGG? If so, which fights of his is he referring to? As for Golovkin’s “weak defence,” maybe Eubank is talking about the free shots Triple G gave his last challenger, Dominic Wade. If GGG did have a weak defence and was slow, he would have been found out by now, surely. And no other fighters – Canelo Alvarez for example – seem to see such weaknesses in the 34-year-old pound-for-pound star – at least no fighter seems to be in a rush to get in there and face him.
Apart from, maybe, Eubank Jr. If the Alvarez fight doesn’t get made, there could be some genuine intrigue in a Golovkin-Eubank Jr fight late this year or early next. It wouldn’t be a dull fight – or build-up – that much is certain.