Chris Eubank Jnr's progress

Not a bad start to lad's career, I'd move him slowly really try to give him learning bouts rather then rushing him.

He's got a lot to learn, He has belief and ability to put shows together but needs to maintain position when doing it. Seems to have a variety of punches and looks like a athlete.

First one out the way now we can start to see how good he is in coming bouts.

 

Nice start & a good way to present him to the public. That awesome pre fight clip was the one on YouTube which disappeared.

 

I've seen a couple of his amateur fights and they were much more interesting than that one tonight.

From what i saw...decent jab, good handspeed and athleticism and that's all you can say at this point. He was trying to overwhelm his opponent without setting up his punches or showing much variety in his work. He really needs to learn how to work for a knockout. He was head hunting too much and the bodywork was poor, even when he was going to the body there wasn't much purpose or precision.

It's early days, but i get the feeling he's gonna struggle to press fights and be better when his opponent is leading...kind of like a football team who are better when their opponents have most of the play, but when they have to make the play against a lesser team they struggle. Marseille in ligue 1 being a good example of that this season. They've been horrible in the league, mainly because in the league the onus is on them to make the play as most of the teams they're facing are more comfortable sitting back and counter attacking, but in the champions league they've been doing well because it's the reverse.

Btw, i have no problem with him using his fathers act. It just has to stop when he gets in the ring, that's when he has to be his own man with his own style as he has different attributes.

There's gonna be huge pressure though as he'll be under a bigger microscope. But it was a decent start, so good luck to the kid.

 

The "act" was bad enough before the fight but he did carry it on in the ring when he knew he could get away with it. Looked a bit ridiculous to me doing his Dads "high stepping" move.

 

Yeah, that's what i mean, Gaz. I can see why all that Senior-esque posing and posturing was a tad cringe-worthy. No one will really have a problem with any of it though as long as he can fight. I'm sure he'll fit into his own identity as a fighter as he goes along.

 

He's in a funny spot. Ideally from a boxing point of view he'll be left along to progress for 12-18 months but his Dad is a great selling point for him and Hennessey and that brings its own issues.

 

He's a smooth mover, full of feints and clever little shifts in power. Though I expected more lateral movement, stepping off to the side and giving angles etc being a former McCallum pupil.

Ambrose Mendy is his manager.

 

You'd be blind to suggest he doesn't have potential - very good balance, very good hand speed, very nice jab, and good shot selection and punch variety all very blatant to see.

But he probably needs a better trainer than Ronnie Davies - hopefully Sr can help with technical stuff, or they spend some time out with McCallum or Mayweather Sr again, when they can.

It doesn't look like he knows when to attack (and when not to), the timing wasn't good, and he wasn't giving angles to break the shell. The body work wasn't good.

 

Now there's a blast from the past. Remember Benn ripping his license up when they said Mendy couldn't be in his corner.

 

Please calm down its his first pro fight

 

Atberry- That's a good point about the trainers, however being a great fighter doesn't instantly make say someone like McCallum a great trainer. I'd imagine Mike to be not the most patient of people, judging by his personality. It's important to find the right trainer, but we've seen nothing yet to say he should get rid of Davies. That's going over the top excessively even by todays standards, where we think it's always greener across the pond.

Junior didn't look any worse or better than most prospects on their debut. In this day and age almost all of them look the same at this stage. We won't know what this kid is all about until he's about half a dozen fights in.

I'll tell you things to look out for though, follow this criteria and you'll never fail in assessing a fighter. Firstly we have to look at the level of opposition, this goes out the window at this early stage because they're all cannon fodder.

Then i come to what special qualities a prospect has, like his ability to land certain punches, his ability to throw change-ups. By that i mean to vary the speed and look on his punches. Then i look at how he's being effective, is he overwhelming all his opponents with athleticism or is he breaking them down, thinking and dissecting.

If they're overwhelming their opponents with athleticism then it's a big tell tell sign for what they will face later on. It's like a kid who's physically ahead of all the other kids at an early age and then when they all catch up he doesn't stand out anymore, because he was only using his physical tools.

There's a trait i've noticed in all modern day prospects. 1. They don't stand off centre and they stand too square on. And most of them don't know how to work for a knockout. If they don't catch their inferior opponent with a highlight reel, money punch they run out of ideas. They don't work the body and they're not assertive and consistent with their jab. I don't know whether it's the lack of quality trainers, but these traits and bad habits i notice in all young prospects these days.

 

Good point on the athleticism Slip. Happens a lot.

 

Why? Obviously the opponent just covered up to such an extent that it was almost like a heavybag workout but you can make judgements on a fighters skillset based on watching them on the bag and on pads.

It is clear that Eubank Jr has fast hands, a really nice jab in both technique and speed, he puts punches together nicely and has good technique on his shots.

Clearly we don't know how he reacts to someone who punches back ...or how his chin is, what sort of power he really has etc. But it was a pro debut against a ridiculously negative fighter who not only tucked his chin in well but covered the body with his elbows and left no room.

It was never a stoppage but that said if I was the ref I would have told the lad in the 3rd that I was going to stop it unless he started throwing back.

The last time I saw Eubank Jr was sparring over a year ago and he looked upright and stiff, the improvements just in his fluidity and the looseness of his upper body have been HUGE. And although it would be madness to start making predictions about what he will do and where he will go, the technique and speed look very promising indeed.

He clearly learns well and listens as the change in his movement and stance have been really marked and just in those 4 rounds he was less rigid and upright than someone like Kell Brook looked in his first 10 fights.

 

For someone who has only had 26 amateur fights he looked like he's been boxing for a lot longer than that.

 

Looked good but the only issue is there is no power behind his punches and im not sure it will improve massively over the years. I liked his jab and movement.