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Tonight, Chris Eubank Jr is handed a golden chance to put right all that has gone wrong in the last year of his career.
A drastic weight cut to fight Conor Benn, the collapse of that long-anticipated grudge match, the uncertainty over whether the pair would ever share a ring – that was the backdrop to a dramatic fourth-round stoppage defeat to Liam Smith in January.
Tricked by feints and on the back foot, as Smith dropped Eubank with a left hand in the fourth round, Manchester Arena was left stunned. A drunken stagger followed and referee Victor Loughlin could have stopped proceedings then and there. When the second onslaught came from Smith, he had no choice.
It was a fight so captivating, short though it proved, that there has been no need for either boxer to cross the line into verbal histrionics for the rematch. Whether Eubank is able to enact revenge is dubious; Smith, though he turned 35 in July, is enjoying an extraordinary late resurgence and is in the form of his career, with four successive TKOs.
He may never reach the heights of his WBO light-middleweight title reign again, which ended with defeat to Canelo, but the fact he is in the mix for a shot at major belts again is a triumph in itself.
His opponent, by contrast, sees his future hanging in the balance.
When Eubank was beaten by George Groves and Billy Joe Saunders, there was still a way ahead. It is hard to see how he would come back from another loss here.
“My career is on the line”, he admits. With that in mind, it has been all change in his corner. Roy Jones Jr is gone, but upon his departure he has given an insight into what went so badly the first time.
In a recent interview with Sporting Post, the trainer accused Eubank of questioning his instructions in camp, hence their recent split.
Brian McIntryre has replaced him, and as the man behind the success of Terence Crawford, the world’s pound-for-pound best, Eubank will have every faith that he is on the path to revenge.
The major question mark against Smith centres around his fitness. The rematch has been postponed twice due to an unspecified old injury, and while there is confidence behind the scenes that he is fully fit, preparations have been badly disrupted.
Yet there are still sufficient doubts about Eubank to make Smith the favourite. For his remaining years in the sport, he will be shaped by that knockout – his first ever – in ways that may be difficult to appreciate from the outside.
On occasion, Smith made the mistake of standing too still in front of him but Eubank will be conscious that he is now the target himself. The damage could well be permanent.
At the time, he put it down to a moment of carelessness. Belatedly, he claimed a Smith elbow, an illegal shot. The reality was that he had never looked quite right, weighing in at 159lbs and questions will persist over whether he is suited to middleweight.
Smith believes it was as simple as this: “He was terrified of getting hit”.
That should not be the case this time – and whatever unfolds will no doubt be a much-needed antidote to the unfiltered noise around boxing, the failed drug tests, the botched match-making and low blows. The jeopardy is very real: Eubank will not get another chance at retribution.
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Smith vs Eubank II details
- Date: Saturday 2 September
- Venue: AO Arena, Manchester
- Fight time: Ring walks for the main event are expected around 10pm (UK time)
- TV/live stream: Sky Sports Box Office, where the pay-per-view price is £19.95
- Undercard highlights: Mark Heffron defends his British super-middleweight title against Jack Cullen, Mikaela Mayer continues her rebuild after defeat to Alycia Baumgardner, and Florian Marku should put on a show against Dylan Moran
- i predicts: A much closer fight than last time but Smith edges it with a late stoppage
Full card:
- Liam Smith vs Chris Eubank Jr (middleweight)
- Mark Heffron vs Jack Cullen (super middleweight)
- Adam Azim vs Aram Faniian (super-lightweight
- Mikaela Mayer vs Silvia Bortot (super-lightweight)
- Frankie Stringer vs Christian Lopez Flores (lightweight)
- Frazer Clarke vs David Allen (heavyweight)
- Florian Marku vs Dylan Moran (welterweight)
- Lauren Price vs TBA (welterweight)
Any other business
Errol Spence will activate a rematch clause to fight Terence Crawford for a second time.
Manny Pacquiao is planning a surprise appearance at the Paris Olympics, where he hopes to end his career with a gold medal.
Sky have confirmed an upcoming documentary Hatton will focus on the life and career of Ricky Hatton, billed as an “intimate portrait of a sporting hero marked by brilliance and imperfections”.
Oleksandr Usyk’s coach Sergey Lapin has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Daniel Dubois’ “low blow”, calling the British heavyweight a “quitter” and accusing his team of planning “to make it a dirty fight with illegal punches”.