Two-weight world champion Billy Joe Saunders says bitter rival Chris Eubank Jr. is an irrelevance in boxing.
Saunders beat Eubank by split decision back in November 2014, but the bad blood has simmered ever since. A rematch fell through shortly afterwards, but the duo have continually aimed digs at one another in the years that have followed.
When Saunders lost on an eight-round retirement to pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez in May, a gleeful Eubank celebrated winning a £10,000 bet on a stoppage and posted a video of himself laughing.
But the Hatfield southpaw feels Eubank (30-2, 22 KOs) uses his name to stay in the spotlight. Having been heavily compensated for the loss of his WBO 168lbs crown against Canelo, Saunders doesn’t have to fight again and has even mulled retirement.
“He needs me, I don’t need him,” Saunders (30-1, 14 KOs) told Talksport. “At the end of the day, I’m 31 years old, if I don’t ever wanna work again, wanna sit back, wanna chill, I can do that. And so it should be, I’ve put a lot of time into boxing and I’ve paid my dues. The sport’s been very, very good to me.
“But he’s got no big fight, there’s nobody that’s interested because he doesn’t bring anything to the table. So he’s gotta make himself known and seen by doing some sort of, whatever it is around my situations. Because he’s irrelevant to everybody, nobody’s really interested in him.
“At the minute he’s 32 or whatever he is [actually 31], he’s never been world champion. He’s still fighting British or Commonwealth level sort of fighters, nowhere near world title level fighters.
“He has to try and sell himself I suppose which is understandable. But he’s just irrelevant to everybody.”