By: Sean Cross
Chris Eubank Jr. and Liam Smith entered the ring at the Manchester Arena in Britain on Saturday night. Although technically not of deep significance, former authority Smith and legendary Eubanks had enough pedigree and notoriety behind them to make their matchup a big deal. These were, simply put, two very good fighters with gas in the tank and who didn’t seem like big fans of each other, whose intelligence proved the insult of their final press conference. The fight was scheduled for 12 in the middleweight division.
The live crowd at Manchester Arena was so electric that the opening bell could be heard across the Atlantic. 32-2 Eubank starts firing jabs at 32-3-1 Smith as Smith mounts the action. The second saw everyone play it relatively safe and bide their time. Maybe they didn’t care much for each other, but each fighter respected the other’s abilities.
Smith continued to pull away in the third, but Eubank appeared to dominate later in the round. A flurry of strikes wore Eubank down early in the fourth. Eubank gets up – but sits down again. The referee stopped the fight. Ironically, Eubank got up and tried to fight Smith, even though the fight was officially over. In fairness though, the guy still seems a bit out of it at that point and doesn’t seem to know what’s going on.
In a sign of good sportsmanship, Eubank went over to Smith a minute or so later to congratulate him on his win.
