Perhaps Liam Smith will be more interested in taking a victory lap the second time around.
The highest profile win of his career earlier this year carried a certain sense of satisfaction for the former WBO junior middleweight titlist. A fourth-round knockout of Chris Eubank Jr. was viewed as an upset at the time, as there were questions as to whether Smith could handle a naturally bigger opponent.
Still, there wasn’t an overwhelming sense of satisfaction in disproving his detractors, save for one in particular.
“It felt good to just prove Chris wrong,” Smith admitted during ‘The Gloves Are Off: Liam Smith vs. Chris Eubank Jr. 2’ which debuted Sunday on Sky Sports. “It felt good to go out and do the things he said I couldn’t do. That was the most satisfying thing for me.”
Liverpool’s Smith (33-3-1, 20KOs) was a +200 underdog headed into their first fight this past January 21 at AO Arena in Manchester, England. The same venue will play host to their rematch this Saturday atop a Sky Sports Box Office event, which sees Smith enter as a -150 favorite according to bet365 sportsbook.
The contentious buildup to their first fight ended with Eubank (32-3, 23KOs) forced to deal with the first stoppage defeat of his career. The 33-year-old second-generation boxer from Brighton was dropped hard in round four and never fully recovered as Smith closed the show to complete the upset. He wasn’t expected to win nor did anyone figure the bout to end that early.
Nobody could have found fault had Smith elected to thump his chest. Instead, he braced for Eubank to invoke his rematch clause, which now gives him the chance to repeat the feat.
Maybe then, the celebration can commence.
“I always knew this was coming through,” stated Smith, who has won four straight. “I enjoyed it to a certain extent but I still got a job to do.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox