- Berlanga publicly called for a London fire fight with Eubank Jr on Twitter this week and confirmed Zuffa Boxing would let him take the fight under his new deal.
- Eubank Jr is freshly free agent after the Sauerland deal lapsed; he wants 164 pounds, Berlanga refuses to go below 168 — that is the standoff in one sentence.
- Both men need this fight more than they want to admit. Eubank is 36, off a Benn loss; Berlanga is two losses deep and needs the British market. The four-pound gap is solvable — but only if pride moves first.
Right Then — A Perfectly Good Fight Stuck On Four Pounds
Right then. Let's not beat around the bush. Edgar Berlanga wants Chris Eubank Jr next, in London, for a proper fire fight. Eubank Jr, freshly out of his Sauerland deal and operating as a free agent for the first time in years, is open to it. Both promotions can theoretically make it work. Both fanbases want it. Both broadcasters would buy it. And yet, as it stands tonight, the fight is dead in the water — over four pounds.
Eubank Jr wants the bout at a 164 catchweight. Berlanga refuses to go below 168. That is the entire blockage, no matter how it gets dressed up in the press. And as ever in this sport, it is the kind of small, stupid, ego-driven dispute that ends genuinely good fights before they get a chance to happen.
Where Each Side Is Coming From
From Eubank Jr's point of view, 164 makes sense. He is 36, he had a brutal run last year — stopped by Sheeraz in five at Selhurst, then a points loss to Benn at Tottenham that ended in a hospital stay — and the cards in his comeback have to be picked carefully. Coming down to 164 takes the edge off Berlanga's natural size advantage and gives Chris a chance to rehydrate to roughly 175 on fight night, which has been his comfort weight for years.
From Berlanga's point of view, 168 is the principle as much as the number. He has spent his entire career at super middleweight. He took a Canelo decision loss at 168, took the Sheeraz stoppage at 168, and is, in his own words, "not going to make a smaller fighter's life easier just because his name has Eubank in it". That is a fair position. He has signed with Zuffa Boxing on the basis that they will make any fight he wants — and on his last interview he was specific that any fight at 168, in London, against Eubank Jr, was the one he wanted most.
The Stupidity Is In The Middle
Make no mistake, the obvious fix is 166 and a hand-shake. That is two pounds either way and a perfectly normal catchweight at this level — Canelo regularly fought at 167 catchweight earlier in his career. But neither side has shown any willingness to be the first to move, and that is partly because of who is doing the negotiating in public.
Berlanga has been calling out Eubank on Twitter rather than through Zuffa. Eubank has been responding through Boxing Social and Boxing News interviews rather than through a settled promotional team — because as a free agent, he doesn't yet have one. That is not how a fight gets made. That is how a fight gets aired and then dies.
Why The Fight Is Worth Making
This is, on paper, a brilliant fight. Eubank Jr is a defensively flawed but offensively brilliant pressure fighter who walks down opponents and trades when he gets there. Berlanga is a heavy-handed, aggressive puncher who likes to fight in phone boxes and has had genuine difficulty with anyone who can box on the back foot. Put them in a ring at any weight between 164 and 168 and you get rounds-of-the-year.
You also get a London stadium card that draws between 50,000 and 70,000 fans, depending on venue and undercard. Tottenham would do it. Wembley Arena would do it. The O2 absolutely would do it. Sky Sports, DAZN UK or a Zuffa-Sky co-broadcast deal — there are at least three sensible homes for this fight.
What Happens If The Fight Doesn't Happen
If the four-pound dispute kills it, both men are in trouble. Eubank Jr at 36 needs activity and visibility, and a free agent without a meaningful next fight gets cold quickly. Berlanga, two big losses in, needs a name fight with a safety floor. Both fighters lose if this falls over.
The alternatives for Eubank are Michael Zerafa in Melbourne — a fight that has been drifting in the background for weeks — or a smaller domestic comeback at the O2 in front of a half-full house. The alternatives for Berlanga are getting moved to a Zuffa Boxing card in the US for a name like Zak Chelli or Bohachuk at a catchweight, which would generate roughly half the money and a quarter of the noise.
Luke's Read
This fight gets made — but only if a senior promoter takes it off the fighters' Twitter accounts and puts it in a room. The compromise is 166 and a strict rehydration clause, which lets both sides save face. Eubank gets a smaller man on the night; Berlanga gets to say he held the line on weight. It happens at a London arena, almost certainly the O2, sometime in October or November, on a Zuffa card with a Sky Sports co-broadcast.
If that meeting happens this month, the fight is on. If it doesn't, both men drift sideways for the rest of 2026 and the chance is gone. Berlanga needs to be the man who makes the call, because it is his Zuffa deal that has the actual flexibility. Pick up the phone, Edgar. Make the fight. Two pounds either way is not a hill anyone should die on at this point in either career.
The Last Word
This is a fight that should be celebrated as imminent and is instead being negotiated through hashtags. That is on both men, but mostly it is on the absence of a settled promotional structure on Eubank's side. The British boxing public would buy this fight at 164, 166 or 168. The fans don't care about four pounds. The fighters do, and they shouldn't.