Whatever happened to better safe than sorry?
Stuttgart played host to the quarter-final of the World Boxing Super Series quarter-final between Chris Eubank Jr and Avni Yildirim on Saturday night.
The match-up garnered some buzz this week after Yildirim’s manager Ahmet Oner had the hissy fit to end all hissy fits at the pre-fight press conference. Anyone who decided to tune in after seeing that trainwreck wasn’t disappointed it ended with a bang, and it ended early.
However, if you missed the bout live and were only following the updates on social media, you may think that the Turkish fighter was hard done by with the stoppage that led to his first ever loss as a professional. ESPN’s Dan Rafael went as far to call it ‘horrible’ and ‘putrid’.
Yildirim was getting up and ref wouldn't let him. Horrible stoppage. Putrid stoppage. No knock on Eubank. He looked great. #EubankYildirim
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) October 7, 2017
Think about that description and try to envisage the type of referee stoppage that would warrant such negative adjectives.
The following fight-ending flurry in the third round probably isn’t what you had in mind. Eubank Jr consistently beat his opponent to the punch as they stood and traded until Yildirim became overwhelmed and started taking backwards steps.
Eubank Jr repeatedly tagged his adversary with stiff counters up top, eventually dropping him to the canvas with a vicious one-two combination.
https://twitter.com/ZPGIFs/status/916778924780253184
When the referee waved the fight off, Yildirim was on all fours in a lot of trouble. He was clearly dazed, didn’t know where he was and was being completely outclassed. To us, that’s not a ‘putrid’ stoppage, despite the lack of a standing count.
With that ferocious finish, Eubank Jr successfully defended his IBO super middleweight belt and improved his record to 26-1 with 20 KOs. His only loss came to current WBO middleweight king in 2014.
After the bout, he called out WBA super middleweight champion George Groves, who is set to take on Jamie Cox in his quarter-final of the inaugural tournament next weekend.
AND STILL!!! IBO Super Middle Weight World Champion! Groves I’m coming for you. pic.twitter.com/LUrQKuoE6Y
— Chris Eubank Jr (@ChrisEubankJr) October 7, 2017
