Top Rank president Todd DuBoef, promoter for WBO middleweight champion Janibek Alimkhanuly, is not confident that top contender Chris Eubank Jr. would come to the table to face the unbeaten titleholder.
Liam Smith was in line for a crack at Janibek’s belt, but he was dominated and stopped by Eubank in their August rematch.
Taking to social media, Janibek made it clear that he would wipe Eubank out.
“Now Chris Eubank is number one in the WBO ranking. I’ll knock him out in the first round with my eyes closed! He knows it. If he agrees to fight me, this fight will have to happen in Vegas,” Janibek stated.
Janibek (14-0, 9 KOs) is scheduled to take part in a unification bout with IBF titlist Vincenzo Gualtieri at Ford Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas.
In a recent interview, Eubank made it clear that he wasn’t familiar with either fighter. He saw little financial value in facing either man.
“I don’t know who they are,” Eubank told Sky Sports. “And I’m in the game. So the general public are not going to know who these guys are, which means it’s hard for them to tune in if you’re making it a pay-per-view event, which a world title should be.”
Even if the financial pot is sweetened, DuBoef would not hold his breath on Eubank accepting the offer.
“It takes two to make a fight, and for some reason, no one will actually go to the participant,” DuBoef told Sky Sports.
“The participant is overtly omitting, dodging or moving away from the opponent – his team could want it, his mother could want it – but if the athlete doesn’t want the fight, it’s not going to happen. It takes two people to make a fight, and years ago, there was a different model.
“We’ve morphed into a model where we’re trying to bring the highest quality and best fights to our platform, and we think the whole industry rises, and everyone can go surfing in a big wave rather than in a little pond.”