Liam Smith is well-placed to asses the power of Chris Eubank Jr having fought him twice in 2023.
Smith is a former middleweight world champion who has competed at the very top level against the likes of Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez and Jaime Munguia. He is towards the end of his career right now but still presents a problem for anyone he faces.
That certainly was the case when he first came to blows with Eubank Jr at Manchester Arena in January 2023. Eubank was slow from the off, possibly still suffering the effects of losing too much weight to face Conor Benn in a fight that didn’t happen the previous October.
By the fourth round, he was caught and dropped for the first time in his career and got counted out, which was viewed as a big shock to a lot of boxing fans.
Eubank avenged the result in the rematch just six months later with a knockout win of his own in the 10th round, though Smith had clearly had issues making the weight after suffering a back injury.
Since then, Eubank has had just one fight back in October, a knockout win over Kamil Szeremeta. With the fight against Benn now approaching, Smith has recently spoken to Sky Sports about his former rival’s power.
“It’s 1-1, It’s not so much the loss, it’s more the fact Eubank holds a stoppage win over me and that eats away at me ’cause I don’t think he’s good enough and I don’t think he punches hard enough to stop me.”
Smith – who fights on the undercard against Aaron McKenna – has been open about looking to face the winner.
