Chris Eubank Jr warns middleweight king Gennady Golovkin: 'You're not ready for what is coming'

Chris Eubank Jr has warned Gennady Golovkin that he is simply not ready to face what would come his way in a prospective middleweight showdown between the pair. The confident 26-year-old returned to the ring on the undercard of Anthony Joshua's IBF heavyweight title defence against Dominic Breazeale at London's O2 Arena on Saturday night (25 June), successfully retaining the Lonsdale belt he won from Nick Blackwell with a dominant fourth-round stoppage of Welshman Tom Doran.

Such an emphatic victory over an unbeaten former Prizefighter winner only served to act as further proof that Eubank Jr has long since outgrown his domestic peers. Doran's manager Dave Coldwell previously claimed that his camp felt it was disrespectful that the pre-fight narrative had been overshadowed by talk of ongoing negotiations with Golovkin, a bout against whom formed the central part of the British champion's decision to sign a new promotional deal with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing five months after initially severing ties when they lost the purse bid for the Blackwell contest.

Eubank Jr made no apologies for his desire to test himself against the best opponents in the world and used his post-fight interview to challenge both Golovkin and bitter rival Billy Joe Saunders.

The latter, who is now the WBO title-holder following his majority decision win over Andy Lee last December, inflicted the only defeat of his career to date by winning the British, European and Commonwealth belts in November 2014.

"It's all about making statements," he told Sky Sports. "I feel I'm at world level now and can be challenging for world titles. Gennady Golovkin - I'm coming for you and I'm coming for your belts. Everybody's scared of you but I'm coming for you. Saunders I'm coming after you too. You're going to get it. Anybody with belts, I'm coming for you. I want the hardest, toughest challenges out there for me."

Hearn then stated that a deal to fight Golovkin could be sealed as early as this week, while fellow promoter Tom Loeffler confirmed his client was willing to defend his WBA (Super), WBC, IBF and IBO titles in the United Kingdom.

"I'm ready, who's next? @chriseubankjr @EddieHearn @SkySportsBoxing," tweeted the 34-year-old Kazakh power puncher, who secured a 22nd consecutive knockout with a straightforward victory over American mandatory challenger Dominic Wade in Inglewood, California earlier this year.

Replying to the tweet, Eubank Jr said: "You're not ready for what's coming. Sign the contract & we'll find out."

Golovkin's fearsome global reputation means he has typically struggled to land high profile fights in recent years. A lucrative meeting with Mexican star Saul "Canelo" Alvarez remains the ultimate goal, with Golden Boy's Oscar De La Hoya recently confirming that a tentative verbal agreement is in place for the duo to finally meet in the autumn of 2017.

Canelo has been accused by some of avoiding "Triple G" and he vacated his WBC belt two weeks after dispatching Britain's Amir Khan in order not to be "forced into the ring by artificial deadlines". It was thought that delay would give him the chance to get used to fighting at the middleweight limit of 160 lbs, although it has now been confirmed that he will actually drop from 155kg to 154kg in September and challenge WBO light-middleweight champion Liam Smith in Las Vegas.