Chris Eubank Jr vs Billy Joe Saunders
Saunders inflicted Eubank Jr's first loss when they met in 2014 Getty

KEY POINTS

  • Eubank Jr suffered the second defeat of his career after his loss to Groves.
  • Saunders, who inflicted the first defeat, was not impressed with the 28-year-old.

Billy Joe Saunders was not impressed with Chris Eubank Jr's performance following his unanimous decision loss to WBA and now IBO super-middleweight champion George Groves in the World Boxing Super Series semi-final last weekend.

Groves managed to outclass Eubank Jr on Saturday (17 February) to not only advance to the final where he will face the winner of Callum Smith and Jurgen Brahmer bout, but also inflict just the second defeat of his opponent's career.

The first defeat for "Next Gen" was inflicted by Saunders when he emerged victorious via split decision back in 2014 to retain his then European, British, and Commonwealth middleweight titles.

The current WBO middleweight champion had some strong words for Eubank Jr, particularly taking aim at the fact that he doesn't make use of an official trainer or promoter.

"I enjoyed watching him get beat. You can't be disrespectful and mischievous at this level," Saunders told talkSPORT. "If you think you can be that ignorant and get in there for this calibre of opponent without a trainer and without proper guidance, this is going to happen ten out of ten [times].

"He is never, ever going to be a world beater. I have always said this. I beat him with six weeks training with a little bit of movement. All I did was use my legs, get on my feet and out-point him.

"You can read him so, so well [with] a good boxing brain. I spoke to George Groves the night before. I told him to get on his feet and use his jab and he said 'I've got it, that is what we have been doing'.

"I knew if he was even half the man that boxed [Carl] Froch, he would win. And I won a few quid as well."

Following his loss, Eubank Jr quickly tried to set up a meeting with IBF super-middleweight champion Caleb Truax.

"I guess I'm out of the tournament but there's a man called Caleb Truax who has a world title so maybe we can get it on and I can fight the winner of the tournament," Eubank Jr said after the fight.

However, according to the Daily Mail, Truax is deep in negotiations for a fight with James DeGale who is exercising his rematch clause after losing his title to the American in a shock majority decision loss back in December.

In addition, Truax played down the chances of a fight with Eubank Jr after he took to Twitter to respond.

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