EUBANK JR HAS THE ‘RAT’ IN HIS SIGHTS
CHRIS EUBANK JUNIOR reckons he would have only needed one more round to beat Billy Joe Saunders in their 2014 clash.
And he is convinced he will avenge that points defeat in any second meeting with the man he refers to as a ‘rat’ once he has dealt with little-known German Sven Elbir on Saturday.
“The rounds he won, he nicked and I just didn’t really do enough,” said Eubank, who has been told by Saunders they can meet again for £5million.
Convincingly
“The rounds I won, I hurt him. I won the rounds convincingly. Another round and he would have quit or I would have knocked him out.
“But shoulda, woulda, coulda – he has that win over me in the history books and does it need to be avenged? I guess it does.
“It was only inexperience on my part that I lost that fight.
“I’d only ever gone eight rounds before and that was the question mark – how am I going to feel in the ninth, the 10th, the 12th?
“So I paced myself too much early on but I got to the fifth round and thought, ‘Is this it? Is this all this guy has got? Let’s go’.
“I took it to him and dominated for the rest of the fight.
“Now, being a much more experienced fighter, the fire, the heat, the cooking would be done from round one, not round six.”
The war of wards between the pair reignited following Saunders’s defeat by Saul Alvarez in May, the Brit quitting at the end of the eighth round after suffering some serious damage to an eye.
Earlier this month, Eubank said: “There was no smashed orbital bone, no broken eye socket… If that was the truth, there would have been doctors’ reports, pictures.
“The guy was driving around in his car a week later with sunglasses on. We’re not sheep. No, he quit.”
And that prompted a reply from Saunders on Twitter which said: “5m, and I will come back and spank you once again, man down.”
Eubank is bang up for that and he went on: “Another fight between us would capture the nation’s imagination.
“It was a very dark atmosphere the day of the first one. There is a lot of history, a lot of animosity and it has to be settled at some point.
“With me and him, there’s a lot of pride. We have years and years of beef, so I would expect him to be a lot more resistant against me.
“But when we fought seven years ago we were at the same level and even after me not doing anything for six rounds we had a split decision.
“Since that time I have improved tenfold and he is the same fighter. That fight is an exciting fight and if it comes I will gladly do the business.”
At 31, Eubank is in as good a shape – if not the best – as he has been in his career and he is convinced he still has years left in the tank.
He said: “I live the life. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do things that shorten a fighter’s career.
Longevity
“I don’t blow up, I don’t have to cut stones every time I have a fight camp, so all that means I will be able have longevity.
“That coupled with my new relationship with trainer Roy Jones Jnr and the things he is teaching, I have many, many more years in the game.
“I feel as good as when I was 20, so we’ve a long way to go before I think about moving on to the next part of my life.”
The rounds I
won, I hurt him. I won them convincingly. Another round and he would have quit or I would have knocked
him out.