Chris Eubank Jr and Liam Smith will meet in a domestic grudge match on Sky Sports Box Office this month.
The middleweight bout, scheduled for January 21 in Manchester, is Sky and Boxxer’s fight pay-per-view effort of the year, and it has been confirmed that it will be available to viewers at the standard price of £19.95.
Speaking on TalkSPORT, promoter Ben Shalom said that there was no other way to make it happen.
“Eubank Jr’s probably the biggest name in British boxing outside of the heavyweight division. So how do you give him the highest risk fight that he’s taken in a long time.
A 50/50 fight against a former world champion from Britain that brings a huge crowd of his own…”
“It’s a huge fight, and, unfortunately the numbers – in any way that you chop that up – you cannot make this otherwise.”
Despite there being no world title on the line, there’s no question that the two fighters are bringing a certain level of skill and competition to the table. Pair that with an intriguing undercard and many fans will be okay with forking over the cash.
Joseph Parker returns from his defeat to Joe Joyce in a left-field matchup against former cruiserweight and Manchester man, Jack Massey.
Richard Riakporhe will start 2023 off with a bang against Krzysztof Glowacki, and Ekow Essuman is set to defend his British and Commonwealth welterweight title against Chris Kongo in what many are predicting could be fight of the night.
Former Team GB Boxing Captain, Frazer Clarke, will make his fifth appearance as a professional against an as yet unnamed opponent.
As for the main event, it has been revealed that there’s a rematch clause on Eubank’s end, meaning if Smith is victorious in Manchester, the pair will likely be running it back in Liverpool later in the year.