A Shocker in Manchester: Liam Smith Stops Chris Eubank Jr in Four

Liverpool middleweight Liam “Beefy” Smith, thought to be in the twilight of his career at age 34, produced arguably the best win of his long career tonight in Manchester, stopping Chris Eubank Jr in the fourth frame, leaving his shell-shocked foe with a possible busted orbital bone.

The first two rounds were uneventful and basically even. Eubank clearly had the best of it in the third stanza giving no portent of the drama that was to unfold.

In round four, Smith caught Eubank coming off the ropes and nailed him with a left uppercut followed by a brutal left hook that knocked Eubank off his pins, detached from his senses. Eubank made it to his feet only to be knocked down again, forcing the stoppage. Eubank was so discombobulated that he did not realize that the fight had been waived off and his corner which included Roy Jones Jr had to stop him from throwing more punches.

The second-youngest of the four fighting Smith brothers from Liverpool, ‘Beefy’ had toiled mostly at 154 where he once held the WBO version of the title, a diadem stripped from him by Canelo Alvarez who remains the only man to have stopped him inside the distance. His win today improved his ledger to 33-3-1.

Although things got ugly during the pre-fight press conference, Eubank (32-3) was classy in defeat, congratulating his conqueror with kind words. “I respect you,” he said to Smith. “I respect your family. I always have.”

Other Bouts of Note

In a cruiserweight contest, London-born Richard Riakporhe stopped Polish southpaw Krzysztof Glowacki in the fourth round, advancing his record to 16-0 (12 KOs). Riakporhe, who at six-foot-five had a five-inch height advantage, was firmly in control when he tagged Glowacki (32-4) with a fusillade of punches, forcing the stoppage. The official time was 2:44 of round four.

At age 36, Glowacki, a former WBO cruiserweight title-holder, looks like a pale imitation of the fighter who took Oleksandr Usyk the distance in 2016 in a battle of unbeatens.

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In a well-matched battle with several regional welterweight title belts at stake, Ekow Essuman (19-0, 7 KOs) maintained his undefeated record with a 12-round majority decision over Chris Kongo. The judges had it 116-113, 115-114, and 114-114.

A former stablemate and sparring partner of Scottish title-holder Josh Taylor, Kongo (14-2) had the best of the early rounds thanks to his superior workrate, but the harder-hitting Essuman, from Nottingham by way of Botswana, stayed the course and gradually turned the tide in his favor.

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In a 10-round heavyweight affair, New Zealand’s Joseph Parker, currently residing in Morecambe, home to sparring partner Tyson Fury, took a step down in class after getting manhandled by Joe Joyce and won a unanimous decision over a local lad, Jack Massey. The judges had it 97-92 and 96-93 twice. There were no knockdowns, but Massey, a conventional cruiserweight who was out-weighed by 32 pounds, had a point deducted in round eight for holding.

Five years have elapsed since Parker (31-3, 21 KOs) won the WBO version of the heavyweight title with a majority decision over Andy Ruiz and he’s done nothing since then to enhance his esteem. Massey, who tried his best but could not match the physicality of the Kiwi, declined to 20-2. He had won four straight coming in but against hand-picked foreigners.

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