Chris Eubank Jr. doesn’t believe he has to reinvent the wheel to change his luck versus Liam Smith.
While the second-generation boxer has come to grips with his fourth-round knockout defeat to the former WBO 154-pound titlist earlier this year, he remains convinced their rematch this weekend will produce a different outcome.
“I’m not a different guy. I’ve never played a part, I’ve never been an act,” Eubank said during Sky Sports’ ‘The Gloves Are Off: Liam Smith vs. Chris Eubank Jr. 2’ which debuted Sunday. “Just because he has a win over me, I’m not going to become a different guy.
“He has a win over me, I have to pull it off in this fight. If I don’t, like I told him before—hat comes off, you are the better man. As of right now, though, I don’t believe he is.”
That opinion was challenged, of course.
“But I am, though,” quipped Smith. “As of right now, aren’t I?”
“I don’t believe you are,” insisted Eubank.
“I am, though,” replied Smith (33-3-1, 20KOs), who stopped Eubank in the fourth round of their middleweight bout on January 21 at AO Arena in Manchester, England. The same venue will host their rematch atop a Sky Sports Box Office event this Saturday.
Brighton’s Eubank (32-3, 23KOs) won six straight fights ahead of their first meeting and was more than holding his own through three rounds. Smith changed that in an instant with a fourth-round knockdown from which Eubank never fully recovered as the fight was stopped moments later.
“It’s part of the game. It’s part of growing as a fighter,” admitted Eubank, who invoked his rematch clause in February but has waited out at least two postponements for his chance at revenge. “Nobody’s perfect. Now we get to do it again to make sure that we really know who the better fighter really is.
“There’s still a lot of questions to be answered.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox