Chris Eubank Jr was knocked out for the first time in his career by Liam Smith this year, bringing an end to rumours of an elite chin and asking questions of his world title ambitions.
One man who believes he should leave the championship dreams behind is Carl Froch.
Eubank now has three losses to his name, notably coming at the stages of his career in which he’s stepped up the level of competition.
Froch – a former super middleweight champion and recent Hall of Fame inductee – first looked at Eubank’s performance against Smith and his decision – a poor one in his opinion – to activate an immediate rematch.
“Eubank has shown his levels and limitations. I was surprised he was knocked out by a career super welterweight. He’s a celebrity fighter.
He’s very tough like this dad. Well he used to be. But when he got clipped on the chin by Liam Smith, I’m questioning Eubank Jr. He’s in his thirties, is he struggling with weight, can he hold a punch, will he win the rematch – I’m not so sure …. I’m surprised he’s activating the rematch with Smith.”
He then advised the 33-year-old, via BonusCodeBets, to pursue celebrity boxing.
“If anyone needs to go down the celebrity boxing route and try and get something going it’s Eubank. He’s got the name and following. Obviously he’s a pro fighter, he went the distance with Saunders and he went the distance with Groves, so he is capable.
But I don’t think he’s good enough to have a big impact in pro boxing. He missed out on the amateur experience and had a fantastic career in terms of money earned for the level of ability he’s got.”
Despite ‘The Cobra’s advice, Eubank Jr is expected to make another go of it against Smith, and the bookies don’t have him as too much of an outsider in the opening odds.
Smith, though, will be more confident than ever, entering the second fight knowing he can hurt, drop and stop his opponent.