The controversial and largely unfulfilled career of Chris Eubank Jr could come to a shuddering halt on Saturday night if he suffers another bad defeat to Liam Smith in their middleweight rematch at the AO Arena in Manchester. In late January, Smith dropped Eubank Jr twice on his way to a clinical fourth-round stoppage victory.
Eubank Jr had been the marginal favourite with the usually canny bookmakers, but the real shock was the fact that he was not only badly hurt but so clearly separated from his senses that the referee had to rescue him from further damage. It was the first time Eubank Jr had been knocked down as a pro. All his boasts of possessing an “iron jaw” looked as flimsy as his suddenly fragile chin.
The 33-year-old has been written off by many as a pompous dilettante whose modest success was built on the name of his famous father. But that is unfair. Eubank Jr is a genuine fighter, even if he does not belong in the highest echelons of world-class boxing, and so he made it plain within days of his shattering defeat to Smith that he would trigger the rematch clause.
“I was dominating the fight so I can’t be disappointed,” Eubank Jr claimed last week. “I got too complacent. I got caught and I paid the price. But, before that, I was dominant.”
This is a dubious claim. While he clearly won the third round, with a savage uppercut rocking Smith, most scorecards were level after the first quarter of the fight. An interesting and competitive bout had begun to unfold but then Smith opened up in the fourth and the way in which Eubank Jr crumbled was devastating for the loser. All of his previously impressive punch resistance evaporated mysteriously.
One possible explanation is that Eubank Jr had still not recovered from being badly weight-drained when he boiled down to 157lb three months earlier in order to fight Conor Benn in a lucrative catchweight contest. That fight was cancelled two days before they were due to meet amid the uproar surrounding Benn having returned the first of two positive drug test results.
Perhaps the intervening months have helped Eubank Jr recover and his training will have been less affected by weight issues. He has also switched trainer from Roy Jones Jr to Brian McIntyre, the American who is usually in the corner of the great Terence Crawford, the world’s best boxer in the pound-for-pound ranks. But McIntyre has been training Eubank Jr for only a month and it is hard to believe he will have been able to change an infamously stubborn fighter who will turn 34 later this month.
Smith is 35 and also approaching the end of his decent career. But he is not in the same predicament as Eubank Jr who, before their first fight, had warned: “If I don’t get the victory, my career is in dire, dire straits. It’s in jeopardy.” That peril is far more acute now. Benn and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, would probably still try to engineer a fight with a defeated Eubank Jr. But even that unsavoury freakshow would be hard to sell in the event of another conclusive loss to Smith.
“If he pulls it off again, I can’t argue with it,” admitted Eubank Jr at Thursday’s press conference. “But my performance on Saturday night is going to be exquisite, supernatural.”
His down-to-earth opponent from Liverpool was suitably sceptical. Hearing Eubank Jr describe his victory in their first bout as a miracle, Smith said: “The miracle was how easy it was. If he makes the same mistakes, I’ll punish him again.”
The man who has emulated his father in being the pantomime villain of British boxing for so long knows the seriousness of the fight ahead of him. Eubank Jr will be determined and driven to avenge his humiliating defeat. But the cold hard logic of boxing will remind Smith that he can hurt and stop his rival. A desperate and bleakly testing night looms for Eubank Jr.
