The Chris Eubank Jr vs Renold Quinlan full fight for the IBO 168lbs title perhaps left more questions open than it answered.
Eubank going into the fight was a strong favorite with most and he lived up to that pre-fight opinion for the most part, although Quinlan proved to be a tough competitor who landed some nice shots of his own at times.
That in itself, will lead to questions about Eubank Jr being too easy to be hit.
Although his coach Ronny Davis in the post-fight press conference did mention that Eubank Jr is at his best when he boxes regularly, and not when he was coming off an 8 month break like he was prior to the Quinlan fight.
Eubank Jr ultimately stopped the game Quinlan in the tenth round for the IBO super-middleweight title.
But what did we learn from the performance in the end?
I’m not sure a whole lot. But lets look at the positives first for balance.
Eubank Jr is certainly an exciting fighter in my view, no doubt about it.
It’s interesting that his father is in the story line of his career too, as people are drawn to senior for his eccentric personality and for his legendary career as a former world champion.
Eubank Jr is definitely a very good fighter in his own right, an extremely hard worker, that is marketable, but the ultimate question is can he beat the best at middleweight and super-middleweight like his father says he will?
The likes of Badou Jack and James DeGale at super-middleweight, and the likes of Golovkin, Jacobs, Saunders (who he’s lost to already) and Canelo at middleweight?
The victory over Quinlan answered none of the above questions for me, and until he fights and beats the best, his father’s claims are just claims for the time being.
Speaking after the fight Quinlan warned Eubank Jr his power isn’t enough for ‘GGG’ (hat tip and credit: Fight Hype YouTube):
He now has a massive platform behind him in ITV, which is fantastic to see not just for him, but for boxing as a whole.
It’s a sign that boxing is sexy again that major broadcasters like ITV are back in the game.
However I can’t help but feel that the smart move last night would have been to utillize their massive terrestrial reach on free to air TV – and not have made the fight pay per view.
At least for their first Eubank Jr fight.
That way millions would have likely watched, rather than what in reality was probably between 30,000 to 60,000 who bought on pay per view (at an educated guess).
Yes, boxing is a business, but think about it from a business perspective for a minute.
Say the fight did half a million pounds in pay per view revenue last night based on a limited audience.
What if it was on free to air TV to the gargantuan audience that ITV have, where many millions could have watched?
Could they have not nearly sold that much monetarily through advertising?
Maybe a little less, perhaps, but a lot more people would have seen him on TV and then come their second fight with Jr – a PPV might have done a lot better.
Of course, we don’t know what the pay per view numbers were.
But judging from online activity on social media last night there was not that much buzz for the fight outside of hardcore fight fans and even a lot of them, were not too impressed with the card overall.
Time will tell if it was the right decision for team Eubank.
Lets just hope they can work with the relevant promoters to get Eubank Jr in the big fights people want to see him in.
