Harlem Eubank vs Nurali Erdogan clash on Channel 5
Unbeaten Harlem Eubank (19-0, 8KO) is looking for win no.20 against French national champion Nurali Erdogan (16-3, 1KO), live on Channel 5, on Friday, November 22, in Newcastle.
The Wasserman Boxing show at the Walker Dome is titled, “Back to Business”, after Harlem has been sidelined for a year, through no fault of his own.
After winning the WBO Global super-lightweight title in his 11th round knockout of Timo Schwarzkopf last November, Eubank managed to land a big domestic showdown with Adam Azim.
The fight was decided upon quickly and scheduled to take place on June 15, however, an ankle injury to Azim saw the fight delayed then disappeared forever. Azim fought and defeated Ohara Davies instead.
Eubank was left wasting a year of his career waiting for fights that never happened. But now the 31-year-old talent is finally heading back to the ring and looking to make up for lost time.
His 20th opponent is experienced and capable, but his trio of losses have all come in the past 30 months. Inhis last fight, the Frenchman took unbeaten stylist Faizan Anwar the distance over 10 rounds, with one judge scoring it 95-94 to him to make the result a narrow mixed decision win for the Brit.
The 27-year-old is a good mover and and feints well, but can be caught cleanly due to his leaky guard. But, he has never been stopped, so he is one tough cookie.
Harlem’s last fight with European Union titlist Schwarzkopf was thrilling. Timo dragged him into a firefight, which Eubank was more than happy to accept, and the super-lightweights exchanged frenzied blows for 11 rounds, ending with Erdogan dropped twice and stopped in the penultimate round.
That’s two knockouts in a row, so it’s inevitable he will be looking to turn it into a hat trick.
Trained by Adam Booth, Harlem is sharp, game, aggressive, with a decent chin. To engage in back and forth battles, but show little signs of being hurt proves he has durability, but he is yet to fight at an elite level where this would be really tested.
He has passed the test against decent domestic rivals, now he is working his way through experienced Europeans, so it’s likely 2025 will see a step up to world level. According to his management, they are planning a big fight in his Brighton hometown in early 2025, but first he has to get past Erdogan on Friday.
