George Groves on how to beat Chris Eubank Jr: ‘Defeat to Liam Smith would be extremely tough to come back from’

Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Smith is live on Sky Sports Box Office this Saturday. Book now if you are a Sky or Non-Sky subscriber. Joseph Parker, Richard Riakporhe, Frazer Clarke and Chris Kongo all feature on an exciting undercard in Manchester

George Groves beat Chris Eubank Jr in a thrilling fight at the Manchester Arena in 2018.

He will be an expert pundit on the Sky Sports Box Office broadcast alongside his old rival Carl Froch when Eubank Jr fights Liam Smith at the AO Arena in Manchester this Saturday.

In his own words, he provides further analysis of the big fight below:

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How to beat Chris Eubank Jr

The jab allows Eubank Jr to get himself into distance to let his hands go. But a lot of the time he can’t get that off so he has to punch in combination to almost close the distance.

He is willing to just let his hands go and not be too worried about what’s coming back at him and that might be the case with Liam Smith.

But Smith’s cute. He’ll dip to the left and he’ll pop out of that left side, so the weight goes on to the front foot in the orthodox stance and then he comes up with the jab, comes up with the jab again.

So that’s a sequence, then he’ll take his head off the line again but throw the right hand, which comes in at a different rate, quicker.

So Junior will have to be conscious of that and if you haven’t got a particularly good jab to match that skill then he’s going to get caught with that and he’s going to have to punch his way into range to have success.

Eubank Jr-Smith prediction

I’ve got a Eubank win. If he loses it’s his own fault. That sounds like you’re taking something away from Liam Smith. But the truth is Liam Smith is a good, solid, well-rounded pro. He was an elite amateur, he won an ABA title, he’s from a boxing family. He’s been a professional now for 12-plus years and he lives the life, he’s working hard, he’s been in big fights, he’s a former world champion but he’s giving away a lot of size against Eubank.

Eubank’s fought as high as super-middleweight. I think he looks really tight at middleweight. I can imagine middleweight’s a bit of a slog.

Eubank’s lost to me, he lost a split against Billy Joe Saunders but it could have gone either way. So he’s not in the company of losing, he’s not in the mindset of losing.

If he punches with spite and volume, he might even stop Liam Smith, who has been stopped before by Canelo Alvarez who is obviously a pound-for-pound fighter. But he can be hurt, he can be hurt to the body. If Eubank targets the body I think he might stop him.

Can Eubank Jr come back from defeat?

I think it would be extremely tough to come back from. Never write anyone off in that regard. I don’t know what Eubank’s intentions are after this. I’d love to see him chase a world title fight after this, a middleweight world title fight.

It’ll be tough to come back from. But if he still feels young and fresh enough, then he could do. It might not be the be-all and end-all where he’d walk away from the game. But it’ll be pretty tough.

Will Eubank Jr win a world title eventually?

He might need to make a move pretty soon. When the time comes to hang up the gloves I’m sure he would have appreciated a few more world title fights.

I would be shocked if he didn’t win a world title. He’s made, massive, massive improvements throughout his pro career. Obviously, a lot of that is down to sparring really good high-level pros. He did loads of rounds with me, loads of rounds with Carl Froch, loads of rounds with James DeGale and I don’t know who else.

Eubank was a middleweight at the time, so he was giving away a lot of size. He was always getting called back to come back and operate.

At the right time, he’s good enough to give some of them a run for their money. Whether he would beat Jermall Charlo, the WBC champion, or not, I’m not sure. But he has a value, he’s good to watch, he’s interesting and he always carries weight when it comes to a world title shot because he has value. He might get home advantage and few other perks like that. I wouldn’t write him off.

Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Smith is on Saturday January 21, live on Sky Sports Box Office. Book it now if you are a Sky TV subscriber or a Non-Sky TV subscriber. Buy tickets here.

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