Eubank: Nothing Impresses Me About Charlo; I Would Win Comfortably

Chris Eubank Jr. doesn’t see anything special about Jermall Charlo.

The confident British contender wants a chance to validate his opinion by challenging Charlo for the WBC middleweight title in their first fight following the COVID-19 pandemic. A Charlo-Eubank bout is one Al Haymon is considering scheduling once fights can be made again.

Eubank assessed Charlo during an appearance on “The PBC Podcast,” which debuted Wednesday on premierboxingchampions.com.

“Nothing impresses me,” Eubank told co-hosts Kenneth Bouhairie and Michael Rosenthal. “He hasn’t fought anybody of note. And, you know, I saw a hell of a lot of weaknesses in his ability when he fought [Matt] Korobov. You know, that’s a fight that I believe I would win comfortably.”

Korobov gave Charlo perhaps the most difficult fight of his career in December 2018 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Russian southpaw replaced Charlo’s original opponent, Willie Monroe Jr., on less than one week’s notice due to an adverse finding from one of Monroe’s performance-enhancing drug tests. Taking that fight on short notice didn’t stop Korobov, who was supposed to box on the Charlo-Monroe undercard, from pushing the unbeaten Charlo.

Houston’s Charlo won a unanimous decision over Korobov, who boxed Eubank on the undercard of Charlo’s most recent title defense.

Korobov suffered a serious injury to his left shoulder in the second round of what was scheduled as a 12-round fight and couldn’t continue December 7 at Barclays Center. Eubank, who lost the first round on all three scorecards, thus beat Korobov by technical knockout.

Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) stopped Australia’s Dennis Hogan (28-3-1, 7 KOs) in the seventh round of the main event that night.

The 30-year-old Eubank (29-2, 22 KOs) is not ranked among the WBC’s challengers for Charlo’s championship, but that is because he won the WBA’s interim championship by beating Korobov (28-3-1, 14 KOs) and thus isn’t eligible for the WBC’s ratings.

“Any man who’s got a belt in the middleweight division is fully on my radar,” Eubank said. “And [Charlo] has one of the belts. So, that is definitely a fight that I’m looking to get, you know, this year, hopefully.”

Eubank recently expressed his dislike for Charlo during an interview with Sky Sports.

“I’ve bumped into him a couple of times,” Eubank said. “We had a press conference before both of our fights in New York. He is not a likeable guy. Some people say I’m arrogant of cocky, but I’m a down-to-earth, decent guy. This guy’s head is in the clouds. He thinks he’s more than he is. I would take great pleasure in taking him down a peg or two.” 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.