Liam Smith is a light-middleweight boxer from Liverpool that comes from a very particular family: out of the 5 children his parents raised, 4 are professional boxers! That’s right, his two older brothers Paul and Stephen, and his younger brother Callum share Liam’s passion for the ring.
This true warrior just made his BOXXER debut, at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool against Tanzanian fighter Hassan Mwakinyo and Beefy certainly didn’t disappoint his fans. However, what’s most important here is not only that fight, but what he has been saying to the press, that he has his sights set on greater heights.
Before the Mwakinyo bout, Liam’s last bout was at the Madison Square Garden on April 2022, where he battled against Jessie Vargas in a most exciting fight where both of them used their hardest-hitting punches to bring their opponent down; yet, in the end, the Liverpool fighter succeeded, winning with a knockout on the 10th round, blocking Vargas’s aspirations, as he was just debuting in the league.
Liam held nothing in that fight, for he had previously teased that if he ever lost against the Californian fighter, he would straight up retire. Fortunately, he didn’t, or he might have ended up playing Video poker online instead of training for his net feat.
As much respect as Liam has for all his opponents, including Mwakinyo with whom he had sparred in the past. He considers the last fights as nothing more than stepping stones, as he stands utterly focused on reaching greater heights. He particularly said “[…] I’m not any of the other Brits, I’m the best 154 in Britain and I’m hoping to become a two-time world champion,…”
So, what’s next?
Liam said it himself: he is looking for a match against Chris Eubank Jr. as he is eying to snatch a world title. On this, he commented: “Whether Eubank comes next or not is up to other people, everybody knows I’d have taken that fight next…” as well as “I’ll take that whenever I’ll fight Chris Eubank tomorrow so it’s out there, they know that, Chris knows that, we’ll see what comes after Hassan.”
Eubank Jr. on his part last fought against Liam at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, and after being victorious in the fight he boasted “I wanted to teach that man a lesson, he said some quite menacing things to me in the lead-up to this fight. I wanted to punish him.”
Thus, the enmity between the two is made clear and has been growing ever since, which is why for the Liverpool fighter it’s not just looking for a new title, it’s a personal matter.
What can we expect?
Eubank Jr. recently had a meeting with Connor Benn, as the two have a fight scheduled for the 8th of October at the O2 Arena, a bout with historical importance, since both their fathers fought each other in the ring and were called nemesis during their careers.
It has been 30 years since then, and the two fighters are now retired, but their sons seem to be eager to prove which family is the best once and for all.
Overall, a rematch between Eubank Jr. and Smith is as of yet a bit unlikely, since they fought way too recently and each will most likely have to move to other fights shortly; still, the possibility is out there, since Next Gen has proven he will never back down against anyone’s provocation, and Beefy is certainly looking for a rematch with all his heart and soul, to put Eubank down.