In sports it is difficult trying to live up to your superstar father, you carry the burden of having to be compared to his greatness.
Chris Eubank Jr. will never live up to his father’s legacy as a great super middleweight champion and showman.
His unanimous decision loss tonight against experienced and awkward George Groves showed that he doesn’t have the fight IQ to adapt and mostly committed to trying to land a big shot with wild haymaker flurries.
He looked like someone who just showed up with no game plan and decided to try and walk forward and use his strength to win when he realized he was down on the cards.
I’m not completely writing him off, but it takes a certain hunger to be a fighter, and Eubank Jr. grew up in a comfy life not the hard upbringing his father had that made him the fighter he was.
There has to be that fear of not having to know when your next meal is, or that desire to compete, and neither of those seem part of his nature.
I’ve never seen that “Wow” factor from him, like his father had in his heyday.
I didn’t like his showing tonight, Groves is no slouch and very game, but there are levels to boxing and if you don’t use your brain in the ring and learn to set traps you will not be able to face a wily boxer like Groves.
When Eubank Jr. first lost, he lost to a slick southpaw who moved in Billy Joe Saunders, and that wasn’t even Billy Joe at his best.
Groves also used his movement and awkward angles to offset him and wound up making him look frustrated trying to keep up with the movement.
Put him in against any come forward fighter who just plods forward and Eubank Jr. will shine but at the elite level where boxers can move, set traps, play around with you, he will be clueless and just look for a last minute desperation KO hoping to land it.
I hope he decides to get serious with his training and stay with one trainer, I’d like to see him train under Freddie Roach at Wild Card, because he needs to be stronger with his punching and Roach is known to focus on offense and power punching.
At the end of the day, this is just another example of the burden of expectations.
