Chris Eubank Jr overwhelmed Liam Smith, knocking down his bitter rival twice before the fight was waved over mercifully in the tenth round in Manchester on Saturday night, as he avenged the humiliating defeat he had suffered early this year.
Smith had dropped and stopped him in four rounds in January and posed serious questions about Eubank Jr’s boxing future. Another loss would have been calamitous for the 33-year-old middleweight from Brighton but this brutally authoritative victory offered Eubank Jr the sweet taste of redemption.
Smith cut an abject figure as, with blood seeping from an eye, he reeled under the onslaught and the referee rescued him from a sustained and painful beating. He had lost every round until then and the fight could not have been more different to their first encounter.
The two middleweights had shed most of the rancour that shadowed their previous contest but there was still a fraught atmosphere when the opening bell rang – with the crowd at a crammed AO Arena roaring support for Smith and disdain for Eubank Jr. The pantomime villain of British boxing was understandably cautious at the outset and both fighters were urged by the referee, Kevin Harper, to refrain from excessive grappling in a messy first round.
Eubank Jr looked more settled in the second as he used an effective jab to pepper Smith, who slipped just before the bell. There was no suggestion of a knockdown but the round had belonged clearly to Eubank Jr.
He retained the initiative when they came out for the third, looking more assured and busier than a strangely lethargic Smith. Eubank Jr forced his rival to cover up behind his high guard as he threw a series of blurring combinations. He again landed at the close of the round and his new American trainer, Brian McIntyre, who is usually in the corner of Terence Crawford, the best boxer in the world right now, crooned “beautiful … beautiful”.
With confidence surging through him Eubank punished Smith and then dropped him early in round four as he followed a left cross with a bludgeoning right uppercut. Smith spat out his mouth guard as he rose from the canvas and bought himself a few precious seconds to recover. But Eubank was in the ascendancy and he backed up Smith repeatedly, working off the jab and hurting the man who had humiliated him just over seven months earlier.
Eubank Jr was so dominant in the fifth round that it looked as if he could soon close the show. Smith was under such fire that he hardly threw any punches – but he did gain some respite as Eubank Jr had expended so much energy his aggression began to wane. Smith still looked groggy on his stool and he again did little when the fight resumed. Eubank Jr’s jab retained its slickness and Smith had to back away repeatedly.
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As the second half of the bout began Eubank maintained the same calm intent as he was again supreme between rounds seven and nine. Smith struggled with his footing, his ankle almost giving way on more than one occasion. The end was as predictable as it was bloody and decisive.
Eubank Jr, who turns 34 later this month, looked serene and quietly jubilant in victory as he resurrected his fading career. On Thursday he had promised an “exquisite, supernatural” performance. He did not scale such heights but he dug deep within himself to dredge up a commanding performance which also benefited from the input of McIntyre. The beefy trainer is used to Crawford laying claim to his genuinely “exquisite, supernatural” talent. Eubank is a far more prosaic operator but McIntyre brought him clarity and conviction.
Eubank Jr knows that a lucrative bout with the disgraced Conor Benn will be peddled in the coming weeks. Benn and Eubank Jr have both traded off the names of their more famous fathers, who were fierce rivals in the 1990s, and they were meant to meet in a contrived catchweight contest last October. The fight was only cancelled after a public furore engulfed the news that Benn had failed the first of two positive drug tests.
Benn and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, will almost certainly try to lure Eubank Jr back into the ring. Eubank Jr seems ready to buckle because, in a post-fight interview, he said: “I’m coming for you, Conor,” before also adding the name of the currently retired Kell Brook. It would be a depressing scenario for those of us who actually care about this tawdry business if Eubank and Benn do face each other in the ring. Eubank Jr should seek a better and far more deserving opponent whose name is not tarnished in the manner of Benn’s.
Smith, at the age of 35, will be devastated to have suffered his fourth loss in 38 bouts. His hopes of a world title challenge at middleweight are now over after this bleak and painful night. He might call for a third fight with Eubank Jr but, in the wake of such a conclusive defeat, there seems little point in a rubber match. Time is also closing in on Eubank Jr but, after this imposing victory, he will have fresh reason to dream that a few more nights of glory may yet be possible.
