Manchester Arena in Manchester, Chris Eubank Jr marked his return to Britain with a punishing points victory over Marcus Morrison to stay on course for a big name fight later this year.
Eubank Jr ended a lengthy absence from the ring, hurting Morrison on a number of occasions before sealing victory with three scores of 98-92.
The Brighton star had Morrison in trouble as early as the second round, but says he decided to let his opponent recover in order to gain valuable rounds.
Now Eubank wants to hunt down the champions and big names in the middleweight division.
“My last fight lasted two rounds, so really it’s been two years since I had a twelve-round fight," Eubank Jr told Matchroom. "There was definitely some ring rust, and there was definitely some getting back into the swing of things. I had him hurt bad in the second round. I backed off. I wanted him to recover so that I could be seen again.
"I’m back on TV, I’m back fighting, this is my home. This is my life; this is what I do. I wanted to go the distance and get those rounds in. I’m happy with the performance. I followed instruction; he was telling me to do things in the corner and I went out there and did it. That’s kind of alien to me. Usually most of my career has been dependent on what I want to do, my instincts and my reaction. But now we have a head coach in Roy Jones Jr and I full trust him. I’m happy to be paired with him.
"This is the beginning of a long and great journey for me. I want to be very active this year, I want to fight at least twice more. This is a good start. Full credit to Marcus. I’ve hit guys with shots like that and they’ve gone. He kept coming. A lot of respect for Marcus. There’s a lot of world champions in the middleweight division. There’s a lot of big names out there for me to go and fight. Golovkin is the end goal, and anyone with a world title. I’m coming, they’re all on the radar.”
