By Jake Tiernan: Chris Eubank Jr. will be looking for revenge against former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith this Saturday, September 2, in their twelve round rematch at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. ESPN+ will be streaming the card beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET. In the UK, the Smith vs. Eubank Jr. card will be shown on Box Office.
It’s unclear what the end game is for the winner of the Smith-Eubank Jr. 2 fight, as neither of these guys would have much of a shot at beating middleweight champions Janibek Alimkhanuly, Jermall Charlo or Erislandy Lara.
Eubank Jr. has a new trainer in Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre, hoping to lead him to victory on Saturday.
The general belief that boxing fans have is Eubank Jr. doesn’t listen to his trainers and stubbornly does whatever he pleases inside the ring.
BoMac likely won’t be able to help Eubank Jr. if he’s just faking attention while thinking of other stuff.
Smith-Eubank Jr. 2 undercard
- Mark Heffron vs. Jack Cullen
- Adam Azim vs. Aram Faniian
- Mikaela Mayer vs. Silvia Bortot
- Frankie Stringer vs. Christian Lopez Flores
- Frazer Clarke vs. David Allen
- Florian Marku vs. Dylan Moran
- Lauren Price vs. TBA
It’s fair to say that if Eubank Jr.’s dad weren’t the famous former world champion Chris Eubank, his career wouldn’t have attracted attention, and he’d be just another one of the many obscure fighters plying their trade in obscurity.
This fight is seen as a domestic-level affair by many boxing fans; the 35-year-old Liam Smith is well past it and no longer relevant. Smith’s career started sinking in 2016 when he lost his WBO 154-lb title to Canelo Alvarez by a ninth-round knockout.
Since then, Smith has lost to Jaime Munguia & Magomed Kurbanov. Smith’s wins in the last seven years have come against a mix of British & Euro-level opposition.
As for Eubank Jr., he’s been a career-long underachiever, and he never broke away from focusing on fighting British-level fighters and not mixing it up with top-tier opposition aafter his one-sided loss to George Groves in 2018.
#2 WBO, #3 WBC ‘Beefy’ Smith (33-3-1, 20 KOs) knocked out the weight-drained looking Eubank Jr. (32-3, 23 KOs) in a surprise upset in the fourth round earlier this year on January 21st in Manchester.
Smith took advantage of the 33-year-old Eubank Jr.’s mistake of backing up into the corner and then bombarded him with heavy shots to put him down.
When Eubank Jr. got back up, he was in bad shape and basically defenseless when the action resumed. Smith then mowed him down, dropping him for the second time. Referee Victor Loughlin had no choice but to stop the fight after watching Eubank Jr. stagger drunkenly around the ring.
“They’re not going to be able to make any crazy changes,” said Chris Eubank Jr. to Sky Sports about his training camp working on getting him ready for his rematch with Liam Smith on Saturday night.
“It’s an added danger to this fight. I’ve never fought in a rematch before. So that’s something I’m going to have to experience and overcome. You must adapt, learn from your mistakes, and do some soul-searching.”
