Liam ‘Beefy’ Smith 33-3-1 (20) may have defeated Chris Eubank Jr 32-3 (23) in their first bout, but he doesn’t believe his opponent is scared of him.
The 35-year-old Liverpudlian knocked out Brighton’s Eubank Jr, 33, in four rounds at the AO Arena in Manchester, England in January. They will clash again at the same venue on September 2.
Smith said he expects Eubank Jr to be wary of him after the knockout, adding that that will make the fight an even trickier proposition.
“So that makes him dangerous,” Smith told Sky Sports. “Do I think Chris is scared of me? No. He’s got vulnerabilities now and he’s probably got ‘fear’ of me as in he knows I can knock him out.
“Fighters are not scared in that sense. Clever maybe.”
Eubank Jr was boxing smartly in their first encounter while Smith applied the pressure. Smith is secretly hoping that Eubnak Jr will change tactics for the rematch.
“A lot of people are going to be sitting thinking, is he coming for a fight with Liam? Is he going to try and stick it right on Liam? If he does then we’re in for a well better fight than we had last time,” Smith said.
“I’m better when somebody comes to me and tries to fight with me. That’s my ideal opponent. I don’t want to be chasing no one around the ring, I don’t want to have to be having to cut the ring down off somebody which I had to last time.
“So if he comes to me for a fight, great, I’ll meet him head on and he’s easier to catch. If he’s in front of me, he’s easier to catch.”
Now that Smith has taken Eubank Jr’s best shots, the natural junior middleweight is confident that the bigger man won’t be able to move him around the ring.
“You didn’t budge me, you didn’t even make me take a backwards step. You’re the ‘big middleweight’ and I basically chased you around the ring,” Smith warned Eubank Jr.
“In a fight that you said you dominated, you jabbed my head off then you landed six, seven, eight uppercuts – a round later I knocked you out. So, by all accounts, you can’t hurt me.
“Yet I know I can hurt you. I hurt you easy because I didn’t even put anything into the shots.”
The difference between himself and Eubank Jr, says Smith, are boxing fundamentals.
“Chris has never been found wanting for fitness, durability, toughness,” Smith said.
“He’s always been found wanting because he’s not good enough and I said before the last fight that would be the same outcome this time.
“You come up against someone with better fundamentals than you again and you lost. Again.”
