Olympic bronze medalist David Price has given his take on the upcoming grudge rematch between Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jr.
Smith pulled off a dramatic upset in January, when he knocked Eubank out in the fourth round.
Afterwards, Eubank would exercise an immediate rematch clause.
Their contracted meeting suffered a delay when Smith sustained an injury, but eventually both sides reached an agreement on a new date.
They meet for a second time this coming Saturday night in Manchester.
While both fighters are predicting knockout endings, Price believes the fight will go the full twelve round distance.
He feels Smith is the better overall fighter and should be capable of pulling out a decision win.
“So, obviously Liam got the win in the last fight in fantastic fashion, and Chris Eubank Jr has never been dropped, never been humiliated in that fashion before, and he has got a big ego so it depends on how he’s responded to that, how he’s been able to recover from that. Has he recovered from that? He can say he has, he can act like he has, but deep down has he gotten over that loss?,” Price told Betway.
“Liam Smith is going in with the momentum, you know what a great win. It was a long time ago now, it would have been better for Smith for the rematch to have been sooner as Eubank has had a lot of time now to get used to the idea of the humiliation of that defeat and recovering from it. Liam Smith though, he’s in the form of his career. I think Liam Smith will be realistic now and know in his head that it’s not likely going to happen again like that, and that’s the best way to go about it, because that’s when it is more likely to happen, when you’re not trying to make it happen. So, going to that fight, he’s experienced, and I think it’s going to be a different fight, but it’d going to be a great fight.
“I think it’s going to be the fight I thought it was going to be the first time around, I think it will go the distance. I think Eubank was trying to make light middleweight for the Conor Benn fight before and that might make a difference, that he’s not trying to do light middleweight and that it’s at middleweight. Ultimately, I definitely think Liam Smith is the better of the two, regardless of the previous fight. He’s a more well-rounded boxer, having fought more high-caliber opponents and he’s street tough. He’s got world class toughness, he’s a great body puncher, and I personally think that Liam Smith will win the fight on points.”