Chris Eubank Jr. has long claimed he was a future world champion. He backed those statements up in a big way on Saturday as he scored 4 knockdowns en route to a unanimous decision victory over Liam Williams.
In front of a decidedly pro-Williams crowd at the Motorpoint Arena in Wales, the Englishman used a dazzling array of jabs and power punches to score a 117-109, 116-108, 116-109 victory on the judges cards.
The 32 year old was able to send Williams to the floor in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 11th rounds. The win moves him to 32-2 (23KOs) all time, and puts him squarely in the title mix at middleweight.
Eubank Jr. is the son of former middleweight and super-middleweight champion Chris Eubank and Karron Suzanne Stephen-Martin. Junior has competed in various weight classes over the years, and even had a title shot at super-middleweight against George Groves for the WBA championship 4 years prior. He would unfortunately lose that bout via unanimous decision, and has since transitioned to middleweight in his pursuit of a championship belt.
“I’m happy with the performance,” Eubank said. “I wanted to teach this man a lesson. He said some menacing things before the fight and I wanted to punish him. I didn’t even want to knock him out in the first round, I wanted to punish him.”
The native of Hove, East Sussex is currently training with former World Champion Roy Jones Jr. and is seeing the fruits of his labours pay off as a result. With the victory, Eubank cements himself at the front of the line for a title shot, possibly as soon as later this year. The WBA and WBC governing bodies currently have him ranked 1st and 3rd respectively in the 160lbs division.
Which direction Eubank and his camp head in from here is up for debate, as there’s no shortage of options for him for his next fight. Middleweight is currently one of the least unified weight classes in the sport. Ryota Murata (WBA), Jermall Charlo (WBC), Gennady Golovkin (IBF) and Demetrius Andrade (WBO) all currently lay claim to championship gold, meaning that unlike at Super Middleweight where all paths to the top go through Canelo Alvarez, Eubank has multiple options to consider before inking his next fight contract.
The victory runs his win streak to 6 bouts, and keeps him perfect over the last 4 years of competition. His last professional loss, the aforementioned defeat at the hands of Groves, came back in February of 2018.
Thus far 2022 is going according to script in Eubank Jr.’s quest to become middleweight champion.