Chris Eubank Jr 32-2 (23) is targeting a shot at Gennadiy Golovkin 42-2-1 (37) after his fight with Conor Benn 21-0 (14) fell apart earlier this month.
Benn, 26, tested positive for trace amounts of the fertility drug clomifene. It is also believed to boast testosterone.
The bout would have renewed family rivalries that started when their father, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank Sr, fought twice in the early 1990s.
But Eubank Jr’s promoter Kalle Sauerland is saying they are moving on.
“We’re not waiting around at all,” Sauerland told iFL TV. “Putting plans in place for scenarios. At the same time, of course, we’re looking at this investigation that I believe was already underway.”
Two names they are looking at are WBA and IBF middleweight champion Golovkin and former WBO middleweight and super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders 30-1 (14).
“Billy Joe, of course, next year, is a name,” Sauerland said. “Our number one target, as everyone knows, is Golovkin for 2023. All those fights are very make-able. Saw Kell Brook up here at the gym the other day… I never know if that’s real or not. We’ve been down that road before. He looked like he needs to shift a bit of weight. Saw somewhere he might be ready in February or March. Junior will be out sooner than that.
“We want the big fights. And the big fights, like I said, the top of the pecking order is Golovkin. It always has been, always will. But there are other big fights that don’t involve a belt. We’ve got lots of options. The good thing is it’s not a situation where there’s no options — there’s loads of options. We’ll just work out what the best ones are for Junior.”
In related news, Nigel Benn revealed he did not want the fight between his son and Eubank Jr to take place at 157-pounds after the tragedy that happen in his own fight against Gerald McClellan. Eubanks Jr would have been moving down from 168-pounds to meet welterweight Benn at the catchweight.
“Chris kept saying ‘my son can’t do this, my son can’t make the weight of 157’ so I said I didn’t choose the weight your son chose it,” Nigel Benn said to The Mirror.
“So we kept going back and forth and Chris kept saying ‘He isn’t going to make weight, he will not be strong and I’m going to stop this’. We kept on going on and then I saw a picture of Chris Eubank Jr [making weight for the fight]. His body is emaciated. I sent Chris Sr a text saying, ‘Sorry, I didn’t realise, please forgive me Chris.’ I said to Conor, ‘If you do fight him, he’s not fighting at 157-pounds, I want you to fight him at 160-pounds.
“Personally, I believe that if the fight would have happened Conor would have hurt him just like what happened with Gerald McClellan. I don’t want nothing on my son’s head saying ‘he is on drugs’ not until I clear my son’s name. I do not want my son going through the same thing I went through with McClellan.”
