The highly-anticipated non-title Middleweight bout between Chris Eubank Jr. and Liam Smith ended with a shocking result that will surely be the buzz of talk in the upcoming couple of weeks. The two were featured in the main event that was held at the Manchester Arena, in Manchester, on January 21.
It was not only surprising by the way the match ended, but given how their bout started, it was hard to truly determine the outcome that happened later. Liam Smith (33-3-1)started off well on the front foot in the first round, looking to dominate in the ring with his style and inside game while Chris Eubank Jr. (32-3, 23 KO’s) felt content in making Smith miss while boxing on the backfoot.
The second round went a bit differently for the two; Eubank Jr. seemed to gain some rhythm and seemingly edged the round through slick footwork that effectively kept Smith’s pressure at bay. In the third round, Eubank Jr. put on a slightly different performance and landed several clean uppercuts that seemed to have put him ahead on the scorecards.
The fourth round, however, proved to be anti-climatic; Eubank Jr. failed to assert himself with the jab and was forced on the backfoot. In one of the corners, he came into trouble when Smith landed several hard punches that dropped him and officially knocked him down. Refusing to back down, Eubank immediately stood up from his knockdown while on wobbly legs, and as the referee continued the fight, it became clear that he had not fully recovered by the knockdown. Smith caught him with several hard hooks that threatened to drop Eubank Jr. again until unsuccessfully tried to clinch with Smith which dropped both fighters into the ropes. Seeing Eubank Jr. was worse for wear, the referee didn’t hesitate to call of the fight, and Liam Smith became the official winner by Technical Knockout.
Eubank Jr.’s came as a huge shock, not so much in the fact that it happened but in the manner it had. The fight had turned into a heated affair prior to its start due to a back-and-forth between the two that turned personal. specifically during their last press conference. Smith had alluded to Eubank Jr. being gay, which led Eubank Jr. to accuse Liam Smith of allegedly cheating on his wife, which nearly turned their press conference crazy.
The win saw Liam Smith not only win bragging rights, as a result, but also net a significant victory over a contender-level opponent that had never been stopped or knocked out. Even more noteworthy was the fact that Liam Smith had moved up from Junior Middleweight/Super Welterweight, while Eubank Jr. had a fair couple of fights as a Middleweight prior to his match with Smith.
The rest of the card featured several other notable fights. British Heavyweight prospect Frazer Clarke (5-0, 4 KO’s) stopped his opponent, Kevin Espindola (7-7, 2 KO’s), after the fourth round after Espindola couldn’t continue on due to suffering a right hand injury.
Another interesting match-up was between two up-and-coming British Welterweights in Ekow Essuman (19-0, 7 KO’s) and Chris Kongo (14-2, 7 KO’s) and was closely-contested with Essuman ending up as the victor by majority decision.
The co-main event featured a bout between two top-rated Cruiserweights in Richard Riakporhe (16-0, 12 KO’s) and Krzysztof Glowacki (32-4, 20 KO’s) in a bid to be considered for world title contention in the near future. Glowacki pressured Riakporhe well throughout the first four rounds, while Riakporhe also showed a tremendously good sense of ring IQ by boxing Glowacki without being driven back too much. He eventually sensed weakness in Glowacki during the fourth round, and with a set of vicious combinations he forced the referee to step in as his shots came unanswered.
Riakporhe’s win was a dominant, and slightly surprising victory, against an opponent that had been involved in at least three championship fights. Comparisons were drawn between Richard Riakporhe and the WBO British Cruiserweight champion, Lawrence Okolie (18-0, 14 KO’s), who had also stopped Glowacki, but in the sixth round. Riakporhe went on to state that he didn’t want to draw any comparisons with the reigning world champion and that “styles make fights”, in response to the question on stopping Glowacki earlier than Okolie.
Overall, the Eubank Jr. vs Smith event seemed highly successful, judging by it being sold out in gate tickets. Despite Eubank Jr. having stumbled upon a disappointing and perhaps career-ending loss, both he and his coach, Roy Jones Jr., expressed interest in having a rematch with Liam Smith in the near-future.
Liam Smith, in the meantime, will be planning to look for whatever fight can get him competing for another world title, whether at 160 lbs – that exists out of three different champions in Gennady Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KO’s), Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KO’s) and Janibek Alimkhanuly (13-0, 8 KO’s) – or his most natural weight class, 154 lbs, where he needs to contend with Jermell Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KO’s) as the current undisputed champion.
