Middleweight contender Chris Eubank Jr. is sizing up his options in 2023.
A few weeks ago in Manchester, Eubank dominated and stopped Liam Smith in their high-stakes rematch.
The most talked about option is a lucrative showdown with welterweight Conor Benn, but Benn has yet to fully resolve his legal issues with the British Boxing Board of Control and UK Anti-Doping - with respect to a pair of positive drug tests from 2022.
There are several other options at hand - including world title fights at middleweight.
WBC champion Jermall Charlo has been out of the ring for two years. There is WBA champion Erislandy Lara, but he's in line for a defense against Danny Garcia.
And on October 14, Janibek Alimkhanuly fights Vincenzo Gualtieri in a unification for the WBO and IBF belts.
Fighting the winner of Alimkhanuly vs. Gualtieri will present Eubank with a two belt opportunity - but the British star indicates that he's never heard of either boxer and also believes their profiles are far too low to generate a big pay-per-view event.
"The names you just mentioned, I genuinely haven't seen these guys fight before. I don't know who they are. And I'm in the game. So the general public are not going to know who these guys are, which means it's hard for them to tune in if you're making it a pay-per-view event which a world title should be," Eubank said to Sky Sports.
"So you've got to be smart. You've got to build a fight in the right way and you've got to have it in the right place and at the right time. That is up to the promoters. That's their job, to fit all that together. It's my job to fight. I do want to fight for a world title, 100 percent. But the politics that comes with all that, it's not easy to navigate sometimes. I'm just blessed to be in a position where I don't have to be in world title fights to be a part of huge fights. Most guys, they need the belts to be in big fights. That's what makes them box office, or makes them worth tuning in for.
"I don't need a belt to captivate an audience. I do that with how I fight. I do that with how I speak, I do that with who I am as a man and as a fighter. Now if we can get both in at the same time, that's the dream. A big name and a world title together, it's very hard to pull off. But I'm going to try everything I can to do that. We just have to take out time and plan the best route."
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