Chris Eubank Jr was stopped inside the scheduled distance in his last outing with Liam Smith; Smith, had hurt on the inside with what looked to me to be a left shovel-hook. Eubank had made the first count; however, he was quickly dropped again as he was still wobbly, he tried to grab hold of Smith who fell into the ropes.
Eubank has deluded himself into believing that the ref had stopped the fight and that he wasn’t too badly hurt, but the footage shows a different story. Eubank will need to keep his hands high; since training with Roy Jones Jr. he has a tendency to keep his hands low whilst being dependent on head-movement for range-control, this wouldn’t be as much of a problem if he had sharper reflects and faster movement, alas; adopting this style at his age I think has been a poor move.
I think the weight-cut also suits Smith better, as Smith does not need to drain himself, Eubank has fought in the super-middleweight division, but this wasn’t his starting point.
I think if Eubank can keep Smith on the end of his jab and control distance better, he outboxes Smith to a decision; Eubank had worked his jab in the previous match and had used it to setup his left hooks and right-uppercuts, even though his power-shots weren’t always finding their way through Smith’s robust guard, if Smith gets inside too often, then it ends in a stoppage again.
