Chris Eubank Jr’s promoter, Kalle Sauerland, has branded the date change of his rematch with Liam Smith ‘odd’ after an announcement was made before Smith’s injury had been confirmed to their side.
Eubank and Smith fought at the beginning of the year in a middleweight contest. Smith upset the odds by producing a fourth round TKO – handing his opponent the first stoppage defeat of his career.
The second fight was finally announced after some to-ing and fro-ing with the rematch clause on Eubank’s part, and was initially set for June 17.
News broke not long after that Smith had suffered an injury in training camp, and it was later confirmed by his promotional company, BOXXER, that the fight would be pushed back two weeks.
Speaking to IFL TV, Sauerland of Wasserman Boxing summed up the situation from his side.
“We’ve been notified that [Smith] is injured, we’ve been informed of a new date, but we haven’t received the medical reports to confirm that new date … I’m sure it will be that date, I’m not putting that into doubt.
We’ve received something late this morning so that’s being looked at now, but it’s a bit odd. I’ve never had a show where someone’s said he’s got an injury and we didn’t receive medicals from the promoter on his side.
Not doubting Liam for a second, but I find it rather odd just to say ‘it’s another date’ – what happens if Chris Eubank Jr was getting married that weekend?”
Sauerland said that he requested the medicals when he was told the show was to be moved, which is standard practice, but only received something on the date of this interview, days after the announcement.
“It was put to us – two weeks later [for the show], no medical, and announced. It’s a bit disturbing. But, at the same time, we’ll hopefully have that resolved and July the 1st will be the date. Like I said, right now we’ve just received the medical almost a week after he had that injury.”
As of writing, all other signs point to the rematch going ahead as planned on July 1 in Manchester.