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Trainer/manager Eddy Reynoso says unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez has no interest in fighting 160-lb contender Chris Eubank Jr. for his next title defense. Reynoso revealed the reports of ongoing fight discussions are “totally false.”
Reynoso states that Eubank Jr. had the chance to face Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) for his last fight on September 14th, but he made things complicated with the negotiations. So, there will no longer be any further talks.
Eubank Jr’s manager, Ben Shalom, told the media this week that talks were underway for a fight with Canelo. It’s unclear when the talks ended because Reynoso says they moved on last September for Canelo’s title defense against his WBA mandatory Edgar Berlanga.
U.S. fans will be glad that Canelo isn’t wasting one of his valuable fights on defending against the 35-year-old Eubank Jr.
The 13-year pro Eubank Jr’s best career wins came against older, past-their-prime fighters Liam Smith, James DeGale, and Arthur Abraham.
“It’s totally false,” Eddy Reynoso said to Fight Freaks Unite about the reports of Canelo negotiating to fight Eubank Jr. “Eubank had his chance to fight Canelo in September, and the only thing he did was complicate the negotiations. We will not touch base with him again for a future fight! Whatever I tell you is always true! I don’t like making statements, but what I declare is true.”
Eubank Jr. looked poor in his recent fight against veteran Kamil Szeremeta on October 12 on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. He’d come off a 13-month layoff and looked rusty en route to knocking out Szeremeta in the seventh round.
Eubank Jr. is the son of the famous British fighter Chris Eubank, and he’s made good money fighting domestic-level guys who aren’t world-class. He’s become a millionaire without ever winning a world title or beating any of the high-grade fighters during his long 13-year professional career.
Eubank Jr’s estimated at $6.5 million, which is an enormous amount for a fighter whose best career win came against 36-year-old Liam Smith in 2023.
The boxing public hopes that Canelo fights undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev next or the winner of the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell fight on January 25th. Beterbiev would be the best bet if he could get an exception from the IBF to delay his mandatory defense against Michael Eifert.
Canelo hasn’t said a world about wanting to move up to 175 to challenge undisputed light heavyweight champion Beterbiev for his four titles. Before Beterbiev’s fight against Bivol on October 12th, Canelo had expressed interest in fighting Dmitry in a rematch if he were victorious. However, with Beterbiev winning their fight by a 12-round majority decision, Canelo has gone quiet.
That can only be interpreted as non-interest on his part because if he did want to fight Beterbiev, he would need to act quickly before His Excellency Turki Alalshikh began working on setting up the rematch.
It’s going to be interesting to see if Eubank Jr. keeps talking up a fight against Canelo for clout-chasing purposes to help keep his popularity up with British fans and to help in his negotiations with Conor Benn.
U.S. fans don’t recognize Eubank Jr. as a serious fighter to follow, and they view him as a guy who never fights notable opposition. He’s strictly a British phenomenon. It would be interesting if he tried to break out of his mold and challenged IBF and WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhnuly to show that he’s for real.
At this point in the 35-year-old Eubank Jr’s career, I don’t think that’s going to happen. He’s a prizefighter and not someone that is concerned about fighting and winning world titles. The only reason he would be fighting Canelo would be for the money, not to try and win his titles.
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