Tonight, Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3, 25 KOs) gets his chance to put Conor Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) in his place in their 12-round middleweight contest, with their event starting at 12:00 pm ET / 9:00 am PT on DAZN PPV. A large crowd of 65,000 fans is expected to attend the Eubank Jr.-Benn event at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London tonight.
Live Results
In a sick mismatch, Aaron McKenna (20-0, 10 KOs) defeated Liam Smith (33-5-1, 20 KOs) in 12 one-sided rounds to win a unanimous decision. Smith, 36, was down from a hard bodyshot from McKenna in the twelfth round.
McKenna landed a perfectly placed left to the body as Liam was coming forward, sending him down on the canvas. He got up at the count of seven and bravely fought back hard for the remainder of the round. The judges ‘ scores were 119-108, 117-109, and 118-108.
The former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith looked like he had lost a lot of the power, timing, and speed that he had in the prime of his career in 2015. Tonight, he was a punching bag, taking a terrible beating from the much younger 25-year-old McKenna. The only reason Liam wasn’t stopped is that McKenna can’t punch.
Still, the fight should have been halted by Smith’s team by the midpoint of the contest because he took a shellacking in there tonight. By the end of the fight, Smith’s face looked like a mess from the culmination of punches he’d absorbed. McKenna doesn’t have power, but he landed so many shots that it was hard to watch.
The wiry-looking Viddal Riley (13-0, 7 KOs) used his boxing skills to defeat British cruiserweight champion Cheavon Clarke (10-2, 7 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision. Riley, 27, hit and moved all night, staying away from the big-punching Clarke, and not letting him get his shots off.
The judges’ scores were 116-112, 117-111, and 115-113. In the 11th and 12th rounds, Clarke connected with some hard right hands to the head of Riley, but he took them well to survive the final two rounds. It wasn’t the most entertaining fight to watch, unfortunately. It should have been the first fight on the card rather than above the more exciting Billiam-Smith vs. Glanton bout.
Former WBO cruiserweight champion Chris Billiam-Smith (21-2, 13 KOs) battled his way to a thought 12-round unanimous decision against pressure fighter Brandon Glanton (20-3, 13 KOs). Billiam-Smith was being pressed nonstop by Glanton, forced to fight in close most of the fight, and struggled to get leverage on his punches.
Glanton had a good game plan to take away Billiam-Smith’s power, but he wore down in the second half. That allowed Chris to take control of what appeared to be a close fight. The scores were 116-113, 116-112, and 116-112.
Fight Time & Location
Earlier today, Eubank Jr. weighed 169.4 lbs, while Benn came in at 165 pounds for their 10-lb rehydration clause. There was a limit of 170 lbs. The DAZN PPV price for tonight’s event is $24.99 for U.S. boxing fans and £19.95 in the UK.
Ring walks for Eubank Jr. vs. Benn are approximately 5:00 pm ET / 2:00 p.m. PT.
Full Card on DAZN
Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn – main event
Anthony Yarde vs. Lyndon Arthur 3 – co-feature
Liam Smith vs. Aaron McKenna
Viddal Riley vs. Cheavon Clarke
Chris Billam-Smith vs. Brandon Glanton
Benn will be moving up from welterweight to face Eubank Jr. at middleweight. That’s why there was a need for a 10-lb rehydration limit to keep Chris Jr. from having a big advantage. It gives Conor more of a chance than he otherwise would have.
Eubank Jr. is the favorite for tonight’s fight. However, given how drained he looked at yesterday’s weigh-in, many boxing fans believe Benn, 28, will be victorious. Conor’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, believes he’s going to make short work of Eubank Jr. tonight, stopping him within six rounds from the pressure that he puts on him.
Benn is known for fighting at a fast pace, and he punches as hard as middleweights. However, he has been inactive for the last three years due to his suspension, which has prevented him from seeing enough action to continue developing as a fighter. He doesn’t appear to be fighting at the same level now as he was back in 2021. That version of Benn would cause Eubank Jr. a lot of problems with his punching power.