Saturday’s all-British midweight clash between Chris Eubank Jr. & Liam Smith at Manchester’s AO Arena conjures up fond memories of a golden era that included Eubank’s father Chris Sr., Nigel Benn and Michael Watson, who fought in classic fights.
Can Smith and Eubank Jr. deliver the same explosive action that captured U.K. fans in the early 1990s? This fight is a huge task, but both men have been anticipating it for years and are confident they will win.
Chris Eubank Jr. made his pro debut in November 2011. He had a great start to his career when he defeated Kiril Psonko in the fourth round. He did not waste any time accumulating wins. He fought in eight bouts during 2012 and won every one, beating Jason Ball and Paul Allison as well as Terry Carruthers and Terry Matthews.
From June 2013 to November 2014, the boxer from Hove, United Kingdom, continued his winning streak with nine more victories over the likes of Alexey Ribchev and Frankie Borg. This was crucial in setting up a title fight and extended his undefeated record to 18-0.
Eubank Jr. was denied the chance to become a boxing champ when he received his maiden opportunity for a boxing title against Billy Joe Saunders in November 2014. However, Saunders won a close split victory over Eubank Jr.
The defeat was just a minor setback for the now-Brighton-based Sussex resident. Three months later, in February 2015, he was slated against Dmitrii Chudinov to win the WBA Interim World Middleweight Title. Eubank Jr. ensured that this opportunity was not lost by scoring a 12th-round TKO victory against Chudinov.
Tony Jeter challenged Eubank Jr. in October 2015, and he won with a second-round TKO. Gary O’Sullivan was stopped two months later via seventh-round corner stoppage. Eubank Jr. fought Nick Blackwell for the British Middleweight Title in March 2016.
Blackwell was defeated by the “Next Gen”, who won a tenth-round TKO victory to win his second boxing title. Eubank Jr. won the British title by defeating Tom Doran in June 2016. This was a stunning victory via fourth-round TKO. The British moved up to super middleweight despite his success in the division.
Eubank Jr. fought Renold Quinlan in the super middleweight division. He won the title by a tenth-round TKO over Quinlan. He immediately defended the title twice, defeating Arthur Abraham in July and Avni Yildirim in October 2017.
Next, Eubank Jr. clashed with George Groves for the WBA World Super Middleweight Title in February 2018. Groves won unanimously. The 33-year-old finished his 167-pound stint by defeating JJ McDonagh in September 2018 and James DeGale in February 2019.
After his six-fight super middleweight campaign, Eubank Jr. won a triumphant return to the middleweight division in December 2019. He defeated Matvey Korobov in the second round by a TKO to win the WBA Interim World Middleweight Title. After a year, he won three more against Marcus Morrison, Liam Williams and Wanik Awdijan in 2020.
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Liam Smith Betting Tips
Liam Smith was a 2006 British Four Nations Junior Champion gold medalist and the 2008 ABA National Championships gold medalist before he moved up to the paid ranks. In October 2008, he made his professional debut against Duncan Cottier and defeated him to win his first career victory.
He won four more matches against John Van Emmenis and Kevin McCauley before drawing with Terry Carruthers on September 2010. Smith won seven consecutive matches against Matt Scriven and, Barrie Jones, Gerald Healy. Paul Morby, Andrew Patterson. Dee Mitchell.
By unanimous decision, Smith achieved his dream when he won the Commonwealth Boxing Council Super Welterweight Title against Steve O’Meeara. The title victory was followed by a win against Max Maxwell, a native of Liverpool, in the middleweight division. He won on points.
Smith then returned to super welterweight and won another vacant title against Erick Ochieng by winning the British Super Welterweight Title in September 2013. It was immediately defended twice by Smith over Jason Welborn and Mark Thompson in December 2013 via sixth-round TKO and July 2014.
The accumulation of vacant titles was not over for the “Beefy”, as he TKO’d Zoltan Serai in October 2014 to win the WBA Continental Super Welterweight title. Another triumph at middleweight immediately followed the victory in March 2015, when he beat Robert Talarek via an eighth-round TKO. He won the WBO Inter-Continental Super Welterweight Title and the WBO World Super Welterweight Titles, defeating Apollo Thompson and David Ezequiel.
Smith defeated Jimmy Kelly in December 2015 to defend the WBO World Super Welterweight Title. Smith was defeated by Canelo Alvarez in December 2015.
He appeared in 11 bouts, winning 9 and losing 2. He defeated Marian Cazacu (twice), Liam Williams, Sam Eggington, Mario Alberto Lozano and Roberto Garcia. Jaime Munguia or Magomed Kurbanov caused his two losses.
Smith won the WBO Interim World Super Welterweight Title and the WBC Silver Super Welterweight Title.
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Betting the fight
This is not an easy battle to pick.
Smith is naturally larger than Eubank Jr., but Smith has a significant advantage in experience at the highest levels. In recent months, Smith has been the most active fighter.
Eubank Jr. is known for starting fast and dropping the pace if there’s no knockout. On the other hand, Smith tends to get into fights before putting his opponent’s endurance to the test.
Smith, 34 years old, was stopped once by the former pound-for-pound No. 1 Canelo Alvarez in September 2016. Eubank, 33 years old, is well-known for his endurance and has never fallen as a professional.
Statistics point to a distance fight. It’s all about who controls the segment of their battle best. Can Smith’s late-round charge close the gap in scoring likely to favor Eubank by the halfway point?
Eubank will, in my opinion, get the benefit of the doubt on the scorecards through a close and possibly controversial decision.
Prediction:
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Potential earnings
A Eubank win on points which pays +110. These odds are the only value bet available in this fight. A 100-dollar bet on a decision win for Fury pays +110. That means you win 110 dollars and get back the hundred you bet. If you like Smith by decision, you can get +330, and I think that is a very plausible ending to this fight; I just don’t believe he will get the benefit of the doubt in a close decision.
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