Liam Smith Expecting The Best Out Of Chris Eubank Jr, Otherwise He ‘May As Well Not Show Up’
They are scheduled to fight on January 21.
Liam Smith is adamant that he will surely not have anything less than the best version of Chris Eubank Jr.
Liverpool’s Smith, a former WBO junior middleweight champion and from a proud fighting dynasty, has gotten annoyed by talk of the second-generation fighter entering their middleweight battle on January 21 at under 50%.
“Nobody believes he’s going to be 50 percent,” Smith told iD Boxing.
“If a Canelo [Alvarez] or someone elite said he only needs to be 50 percent, you think ‘Okay, the man’s a class act.
“Chris is bang average but a good, fit athlete,” “If you need to be 50 percent… if he needs to be 50 percent to beat me, I may as well not show up.”
Since partnering with the UK-based promoter last summer, Smith has competed twice under the BOXXER banner. The 34-year-old former champion joined the organization hoping to challenge Eubank, who chose to settle their score by fighting Conor Benn last October 8.
After Benn’s positive drug test was made public and the British Boxing Board of Control declined to approve the match, their bout was called off.
Therefore, Eubank had to review their plans with Smith in light of the development.
They agreed that their fight would be the main event of a Sky Sports Box Office broadcast on January 21 from Manchester, England’s AO Arena.
Since losing to then-unbeaten WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia in a twelve-round fight in July 2017, Smith has won six of his previous seven fights. That same championship had previously belonged to Smith, who Saul “Canelo” Alvarez defeated in the ninth round in September 2016.
The only other loss in “Beefy” Smith’s career occurred in questionable circumstances. In May 2021, he lost an extremely dubious decision on the road in Ekaterinburg to the unbeaten Magomed Kurbanov.
Most people thought he was unlucky not to win their title eliminator.