Liam Smith tells Chris Eubank Jr: “Just take the rematch, what are waiting for?”

By Boxing News - 01/27/2023 - Comments

By Sam Volz: Liam Smith wants Chris Eubank Jr’s team to stop complaining and go ahead and activate the rematch clause already so he can move on.

Team Eubank Jr are contemplating filing a complaint to the BBBofC over the left elbow that Smith (33-3-1, 20 KOs) hit Chris with in the fourth round in the sequence that led to his first knockdown.

The complaint is meaningless, given that Eubank Jr has a rematch clause that he can activate to get a second chance against Smith.

If Eubank Jr’s team thinks the results of the fight will be overturned by the BBBofC, they’re kidding themselves because it’s not going to happen.

It’ll make Eubank Jr look deluded if he files the complaint because there’s nothing to gain from it. Had the 33-year-old Eubank Jr not been equipped with a rematch clause, it would be understandable for him to file a complaint about the elbow because that might help him get a rematch ordered by the BBBofC.

But in this case, he already has the option of fighting Smith again, so it doesn’t help him and just makes him look silly.

Smith threw a flurry of shots, and unfortunately, one of them appeared to be a left elbow moments before he sunk to the canvas. Whether that elbow shot played a factor in the knockdown is impossible to know.

Eubank Jr made a foolish mistake by letting himself be cornered by Smith, who was getting dominated through the first three rounds and appeared to be overmatched up to that point in the fight.

Liam Smith tells Eubank Jr to activate rematch clause

“Go file your complaint by all means. If that’s the case, just take the rematch. What are you waiting for?” said Liam Smith to Sky Sports News about Chris Eubank Jr.

“You’ve got three or four weeks to activate the rematch clause. If it was caused by an elbow, go ahead and activate it and let’s move on.”

“Let’s not beat around the bush. I fought Chris at Chris’ world-title weight. People clutching at straws, people don’t want to give me credit, they’re all trying to find something,” he added.

“Let me tell you this – I’ll do the exact same in the rematch,” said Smith.

“He’s not as athletic as Eubank Jr, so his style was going to take more time to get the motor running, to get where he wanted to get to for him to get in close to do his work,” said Teddy Atlas on The Fight, discussing Liam Smith’s win over Eubank Jr.

“Smith lost the first three rounds. He won all three rounds fairly easily,” said Atlas. “Again, styles. With a guy like Smith, it’s going to take time to get the motor running. It’s going to take a little time to get in close where if he’s going to do anything, it has to be in close, not on the outside, and that’s going to take a little work.

“In the third round, Smith was stationary, didn’t move his head and was a sitting duck to get hit with uppercuts, and Eubank did with many of them. He was splitting the guard with the uppercut.  He missed the boat there because when he split the guard with an uppercut, he should have put a little left hook behind it the way Crawford did in his last fight [against David Avanesyan].

“Eubank, instead of just catching him with an uppercut, he should have put the left hook with it.

“I thought Smith had to get in close to do his damage, and every time he got in close, he got tied up, either by his own fault or by Eubank tying him up. Smith was guilty of allowing himself to be tied up.

“Eubank got up, but his legs were gone,”  said Atlas about Eubank Jr getting dropped in the fourth round. “It was nice to see some class at the end and respect, where Eubank himself went over to Smith and showed respect,” said Atlas.

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