Liam Smith pulled off a memorable upset in Manchester against Chris Eubank Jr – and it has got people talking.
Conor Benn, Chris Eubank Sr and Jamie Carragher watched on as the British rivals battled on Saturday evening and were all eager to give their take on the bout.
An entertaining night at the AO Arena also saw Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall almost come to blows.
Strap in, it’s Fight Talk!
World reacts to Beefy knockout
The word on everyone’s lips was “wow” as Smith produced a fourth-round knockout.
It seemed like Eubank was ready to apply the pressure after an impressive third round, but Smith responded with an uppercut he won’t soon forget.
After what proved to be a controversial fight week, both men shook hands and hugged following the bout, with Eubank saying he “regretted” some of the things he said in the build-up and Smith admitting in the post-fight press conference: “It got a little bit out of hand between me and Chris [this week].”
Eubank took his defeat with grace and his father offered congratulations to Smith after the result.
‘You’d last two rounds’
One man who seemed pleased with Smith’s win was Benn.
Benn and Eubank had been scheduled to fight last October but Benn failed two drug tests, causing the fight to be postponed.
Benn has protested his innocence but the UK Anti-Doping Agency and the British Boxing Board of Control are yet to conclude their investigations into the failed tests.
He took to social media to taunt Eubank after his loss.
“Oh man, Chris Eubank Jr, it’s a good job you didn’t fight me,” he said. “You’d last two rounds at 160.”
Ringside fights… almost
There was some breaking news at ringside as Taylor and Catterall confirmed their rematch was off, for now.
Scotland’s Taylor was hobbling around for much of the night and was due to officially announce the rematch for 4 March on Saturday night before having to withdraw due to injury.
Catterall joined Taylor at ringside for a brief period but it wasn’t long until security had to step in to separate them.
These two don’t like each other. A new date for the rematch is unknown but here’s hoping Taylor can recover and make the light-welterweight limit one more time.
