B-EU-TIFUL
CHRIS EUBANK JR got ruthless revenge over Liam Smith with a boxing masterclass that ended in a merciful tenth-round stoppage.
Smith battered Eubank in the fourth round of their original clash nine months back and fancied his chances of an easy repeat.
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But the Liverpool hero had a total nightmare from the first bell, might have suffered an ankle injury and was dropped twice before he was saved from his own blind courage.
Just like in January, Eubank was booed into the ring by the Liverpool-Manchester crowd who hate his arrogant persona.
And his outrageous green and gold Louis Vuitton outfit did not help with the working-class crowd and when he reached the apron he cupped his ear to turn up the volume on the jeers.
Smith barely threw a punch in the opener, it was an ugly and rough start with grabbing and shoving and a few Eubank jabs.
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Eubank threw a few purposeful combinations in round two but slow starter Smith caught them all on his high guard.
Right on the bell a couple of shots did land and Smith went down but wasn’t hurt and referee Kevin Parker called it a slip and did not count.
Eubank’s small crowd whooped in the third when an uppercut and hook knocked the sweat off Smith’s silver hair.
Eubank dominated the rest of the round with slashing shots but none of them dented Smith.
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The fourth had barely started before Smith was battered into the ground, for an eight count, by a Eubank barrage.
An uppercut was the final blow that sent Smith to the canvas and then he shrewdly spat out his gumshield to get desperately needed extra recovery time while it was washed and replaced.
Smith looked doomed in the fifth too when he tucked up and absorbed a battering on the ropes but Eubank punched himself out of energy and let him off the hook.
Eubank was excellent in the sixth too, putting on a clinic on accurate jabs, brutal body punches and uppercutting a shorter man. It was the performance of his career - so far.
A left hook to Smith’s ribs in round seven could have been heard rattling around Merseyside.
It was a bizarrely one-sided beating and whispers spread around ringside that he had been carrying an ankle injury since the fourth.
But his corner made no obvious effort to treat the supposed injury in the intervals, preferring to advise him on how to finally land a punch the runaway leader across from him.
Another uppercut in round nine knocked the bodily fluids off of Smith’s head and into the arena air. It was staggering there was no bleeding or bruising around his pounded face.
Smith staggered across the ring at the start of the tenth and finally a cut opened over his right eye, it was overdue.
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And then he was folded into the blue corner for another count after a volley of punches from the Hove hammer.
The referee dived in to stop the pasting, Smith tried to complain but he had barely landed a punch, let alone won a round.
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