By Charles Brun: Chris Eubank Jr is surprisingly a slight favorite for the summer rematch against Liam Smith despite being sparked out in four rounds last month on January 21st.
William Hill has Eubank Jr. as a 4/5 favorite against the 34-year-old former WBO junior middleweight champion ‘Beef’ Smith (33-3-1, 20 KOs).
On the surface, it seems wacky that the 33-year-old Eubank Jr (32-3, 23 KOs) is being installed as the favorite, but the reality is, Smith isn’t any better than Liam Williams, a fighter that Eubank Jr had little problems beating a year ago in February 2022.
Why Eubank Jr will dominate Smith in rematch
The main difference in the two performances is Eubank Jr never retreated to the corner to allow the heavy-handed Williams to unload his artillery on him as he foolishly did against Smith.
By moving to the corner, Eubank Jr gave a very limited Smith his only chance of winning, and he took full advantage of it by throwing a flurry of punches and adding a nice elbow in for good measure.
The way Eubank Jr fought in the first three rounds against ‘Beefy’ Smith is very likely how the rematch will play out because there’s no chance in this lifetime that Chris will make the same mistake twice by fighting with his back against the ropes in the corner.
The ONLY chance Liam had of winning that fight against Eubank Jr last month was if he handicapped himself by fighting with his back against the ropes or with his hands by his sides.
He’s not going to do that again. Hence, Eubank Jr will make Smith look silly like he’d been doing in the first three rounds. Smith is a limited domestic-level guy that has no place in this era at 154 and especially 160.
“The manner of the defeat did leave his reputation in tatters,” said Gareth A. Davies to Boxing Social about Eubank Jr. “He can get his reputation back by putting in a better performance this time around rather than a fourth round knockout and going down from nine power punches.”
You CAN’T plug Liam Smith in with one of the talents at 154 or 160, like Sebastian Fundora, Tim Tszyu, Tony Harrison, Jermall Charlo, Gennadiy Golovkin, or Janibek Alimkhanuly and expect him to do anything other than to lose.
Against those guys, Smith can’t win even if they fight poorly, as Eubank Jr did, because they’re worlds better than him.
Smith is a relic of the 154-lb division from seven years ago, a former WBO belt holder that was put in the perfect spot to capture an easy title against some unknown guy named John Thompson.
Eubank Jr would have had potential as a fighter, but he threw it out the window by fighting exclusively against weak domestic-level competition after his shellacking at the hands of George Groves in 2018.