After almost twelve months away from the ring, Chris Eubank Jr. is finally poised to make his return to the ring and will do so on one of the most high-profile cards of the year. However, ahead of the bout, former WBA super-middleweight champion and opponent of Eubank Jr’s, George Groves, had some choice words to say about the career of his dance partner of old.
‘Saint’ George successfully defended his WBA 168lb crown when claiming a unanimous-decision win over Eubank Jr. back in 2018, in what remains as the lone world title challenge of Eubank Jr.’s career thus far.
Although, after avenging his defeat to Liam Smith and signing with a new promoter, there are hopes that the 34-year-old could finally prioritise a world title shot, rather than continuing to call out the big names and failing to land any of them.
In an interview with talkSPORT, Groves questioned why it is that Eubank Jr. remains as one of Great Britain’s greatest pay-per-view draws, stating that his ‘ability’ cannot be the reason behind the interest in his fights.
“My fight with him was in 2018, that is six years ago now and it is a long time ago. What has he done since? Nothing. I don’t think that he has had a world title fight since. I’m not exactly sure why, but he is the box-office name and that is why he is signed with Sky, Sky are looking for pay-per-view fights.
“He is, for whatever reason, his legacy, his name, his personality, it can’t be his ability, he is pay-per-view. We’ve got the hit-list [of Billy Joe Saunders, Conor Benn and Canelo Alvarez], but are we confident in seeing any of them fights?”
Despite doubting the abilities of the Brighton-born middleweight, Groves went on to admit that he did believe his domestic rival would go on to achieve world honours at some point in his career. Yet, he is now left doubting whether Eubank Jr. has the much-needed desire to achieve at that level, especially given how he already has the level of celebrity that comes with being a world champion.
“I thought that he would win a world title one day [after I had faced him], but it comes down to desire. Maybe in some ways, the desire to win a world title will never quite be the same as everyone else because his profile is so big, because he can always be the A-side, he can pick easy fights.
“He can do a Canelo and pick his fighters, but he has never won a world title. Because of his name, because of his status and because of the way that the boxing scene is here in the U.K. right now, he can go to BOXXER and get pay-per-view fights.”
Eubank Jr. will return to action on the recently-announced Beterbiev-Bivol undercard in Riaydh, Saudi Arabia on October 12th, taking on former IBF middleweight title challenger Kamil Szeremeta.
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