Chris Eubank Jr was winning first Liam Smith fight – he just got careless, says new trainer Brian McIntyre
Before the stoppage came, Chris Eubank Jr was winning his first fight with Liam Smith suggests new trainer Brian McIntyre ahead of their rematch next month; Smith will fight Eubank Jr at the AO Arena in Manchester on September 2, live on Sky Sports Box Office
Chris Eubank Jr was stopped inside four rounds when he boxed Liam Smith in January.
But his new trainer, Brian McIntyre expects Eubank to reverse that result and emerge victorious when he rematches Smith on September 2 at the AO Arena in Manchester, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
In fact McIntyre asserted that, ahead of the stoppage, Eubank had been controlling the first Smith bout.
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“He was winning that last fight,” McIntyre told Sky Sports. “He just got careless.”
McIntyre, the trainer of American star Terence Crawford, believes Eubank should “just change a few things” for the rematch.
Against Smith first time around, McIntyre said of Eubank Jr: “His performance was great. He was winning the rounds, off the jab. He just got careless. Little small things can make the difference in a fight.
“I think that he can do a lot better. I think that he can win the fight.”
It was an unexpected development when Eubank joined McIntyre after his previous trainer, boxing legend Roy Jones couldn’t work with him for this next fight.
“I know enough, I’ve been watching his fights,” McIntyre said of his new charge. “Of course I talked to the team of coaches and we decided, ‘let’s try it’.
“I’d been seeing him around Mayweather’s gym a couple of years back and I saw him at the Top Rank gym a couple of months back.
“I was a little starstruck!” he laughed. “Because you hear about him and talk about him but I never talked to him [before]. It was cool.”
