Chris Eubank Jr takes inspiration from every sportsman and woman doing their thing at the highest level. The Brit pack tearing things up on the international stage especially.
But as he steps into the ring to face Liam Smith on Saturday, the recent achievements of a good mate will be uppermost on his mind. Namely, those of Alexis Mac Allister, the Argentina star who returned to Eubank’s home town of Brighton from the World Cup with a winners’ medal draped around his neck after his heroics alongside Lionel Messi. “I love his World Cup win,” said Eubank. “I’m friends with Alexis, he comes to my house sometimes. I’m friends with a few of the boys at Brighton and what an amazing thing to have a World Cup winner in my home town. I’ve spoken to him since then and I actually saw him on Thursday.
“I told him to bring the medal because I wanted a picture with that puppy. As athletes, we’re all striving to be the best, we’re all pushing ourselves to the absolute limits. So I watch these sportsmen, especially in British sports at the moment, it’s amazing, there are so many stars and we can all learn and take from each other.” Eubank’s clash with Smith will be his first outing since his victory over Liam Williams last May thanks to his planned October clash with Conor Benn being scrapped after Benn failed a drugs test.
Eubank added: “I had a drop-off period after the Benn camp, you let your body rest and I was back eight weeks before the fight, so I’ve had a solid eight-week camp and now I’m fully focused on the task at hand. There’s obviously frustration at what happened but I’m not going to let that affect my mindset going into a different fight. Liam Smith is a different animal, he’s a different style of fight and I know how to approach that fight.”
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Smith is adamant Eubank is not as good a fighter as Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez or Jaime Munguia — two of the three men to have beaten him. But Eubank said: “He’s going to say anything he can to try to put me down or ruffle my feathers. I’m not looking at any of his past opponents, I know what I am and I know what he is, more importantly. I’m going to go up there and take him out.”
Eubank is confident he will do a job on Smith and, while there are several domestic fights to take next, there’s one fight in particular that he wants. He added: “Gennady Golovkin, who is No.1 — that is the guy I want next. Taking him out of the picture, there’s not really anyone specific. There are so many big names out there, there are so many huge fights — Billy Joe Saunders, Kell Brook, Conor Benn on the domestic side of things, any of the world champions, any of the guys with belts, all these fights can be made.
"They are the fights fans want to see so I’m in a great position, but if I had to pick one it would be GGG. I don’t know if he will take the fight, I have been pushing that fight for a while now. But he has the belts and he has to defend them at some point."
