By Carlos Boogs
When British middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. (23-1, 18KOs) reunited with promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport earlier this year, there was a lot of pressure placed on Hearn to secure a fight with IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs) for the fall.
Between June and July, there were weeks of negotiations between Hearn and Golovkin's promoter Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions. The terms were agreed upon and Golovkin was ready to fight on September 10th at the O2 Arena in London.
There was only one problem, Eubank Jr. and his father/manager Chris Eubank Sr. made some very unexpected demands of Hearn. They wanted to control nearly every aspect of the event, from the undercard bouts to the pay-per-view announcers and everything in-between.
After Hearn was unable to reach an understanding with the Eubanks - the British promoter offered up IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, who now challenges Golovkin on the same September date.
Many critics believe Eubank Jr. never had any intention of fighting Golovkin and was simply using his name to gain exposure.
Hearn wonders the same.
"Actually, there is the argument that maybe this was the plan all along, that this hype [that was] created off this process has benefited Chris Eubank Jr.'s profile. So maybe it was a genius move, but I haven't got time for those moves. We have so much going on that I just need to know 'do you want the fight or not? Do you want these millions of pounds and the fight that you told me to deliver to you and it's there?,'" Hearn told BoxingScene.com's Declan Taylor.
"It's frustrating because I work on common sense and I'd like to think that I have a good understanding of common sense, and when you ask me to make a fight, and I deliver it and offer you the chance to make millions of pounds - that's frustrating when I can't get over the line. It's hard enough to make a fight in the first place."
The next step for Eubank Jr. is still up in the air. Eddie's father, Barry Hearn, had several meetings with the Eubank clan, but nothing has been finalized.
"We've had a couple of meetings with them... well my dad has, because I'm just trying to step back. I think in Eubank Sr.'s head he's done everything absolutely perfect. In my head they've made a terrible mistake that cost them millions of pounds. That doesn't mean they won't get there at some point, because he's a very good fighter and they do have a very good product," Hearn said.
