As fight fans may have read or heard, Chris Eubank Jr and his team and said to be considering filing an official protest regarding last Saturday’s fight with Liam Smith. Smith stunned Eubank, and many of us fans, by scoring a devastating 4th round stoppage win over the man who had boasted before the fight that he would only need to be at “50 percent to beat this man.”
But now, having looked at the tape of the fight, Eubank and his team, including all-time great Roy Jones who trains Eubank, feel they have a case for complaint in the form of Smith’s elbow. Eubank and his team say the stray elbow Smith hit the losing fighter with was a big factor in the defeat and an official complaint may be filed.
Smith, though, is having none of it. As he made clear when speaking with Sky Sports.
“They are clutching at straws,” Smith said as far as Eubank and his people looking to blame the defeat on the elbow. “As much as it might be a shock for people to see Chris sitting on his backside like that, just take it on the chin. You lost, you got stopped, come back from it. Nobody believes you. You’re embarrassing yourself. Go file your complaint by all means, If that’s the case, just take the rematch. What are you waiting for? You’ve got three or four weeks to activate the rematch clause. If it was caused by an elbow, go ahead and activate it and let’s move on.”
It’s tough to disagree with Smith here. To be fair to Eubank Jr, he didn’t blame his loss on the elbow, merely stating instead that he “got caught.” However, Eubank still believes he is the better fighter of the two and he wants to prove it. Does this so-called ‘elbow controversy’ make a rematch that much bigger, or do fans want to see Smith go elsewhere (perhaps into a world title fight with Gennady Golovkin)?
Let’s now wait and see whether A: Eubank does file an official complaint, and B: if Eubank activates that rematch clause. But if Smith and Eubank do fight again, can anyone really make a strong case for a Eubank win?
