By Edward Chaykovsky
Former undisputed heavyweight world champion Lennox Lewis would have picked British middleweight world champion Chris Eubank Jr. to defeat Gennady Golovkin in a major upset - if that fight had taken place as anticipated.
There were negotiations for several weeks for Eubank to challenge Golovkin for the WBA, WBC, IBF and IBO middleweight titles in the fall.
Their discussions fell apart after Eubank Jr. and his father, Chris Eubank Sr., was unable to reach an agreement with their own promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport.
After Eubank Jr. fell out of the picture, Hearn offered the fight to IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook - who accepted the deal. Brook will move up by thirteen pounds to face Golovkin on September 10th at the O2 Arena in London.
While Lewis would have picked Eubank to get the upset, he feels Brook is making a very big mistake by jumping up two weight divisions to face one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. He also felt Khan was making a big mistake when he moved up to face Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez in May, and Khan was knocked out cold in six rounds.
Lewis said to The Mirror: “If you’d asked me about Golovkin-Eubank, I would have probably gone for Eubank. I like his intensity in the sense that I know he wants it, and the way he works in the gym is good, I like what he’s doing right now. I’m pretty hung up on him."
“With Brook it’s two divisions and I don’t agree with that. I look at the Amir Khan situation with Saul Alvarez and I'm like, ‘Nobody, does that, that’s why we have different weight classes’.
“Floyd Mayweather says he’s the best ever. Okay, let him come up and fight me. That would be jumping way up. But what I’m saying is that the weight classes are for a reason. When you try to jump two weight classes, very few people can do that and I don’t think Kell Brook is one of them.”
