What’s Next For Liam Smith?

After the runup to the fight was marred by the kind of exchanges that make so many people hate boxing, the bout between Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jr. needed to be a fight to remember (and to make people forget about the adverse publicity). In the event, it was a pretty stunning match, with Smith stopping his opponent in the fourth round. Anyone who had used their Mobilebet bonus code to back the underdog would have been in a fine mood at the end of the night. As, perhaps, would the boxing community after Smith rowed back on his earlier remarks.

With Smith now in possession of a win over Eubank and a greater profile in the middleweight class, a lot of focus will now be on which direction the Liverpool fighter takes from here. The win over Eubank Jr is the kind of fight that can make a career, and even though both fighters are far from greenhorns, this contest gained a national and international profile that could enhance both men’s reach in the months and years to come. A lot depends on who Smith faces the next time he raises his gloves.

A rematch?

Whenever a match between two high-profile boxers ends, whoever has emerged with the W, talk immediately turns to the possibility of a rematch. The beaten fighter wants revenge and the chance to approach things differently. The winner may not want the match at all, but victory will underline their superiority. And the decision on whether this match takes place lies, currently, with Eubank. As the contract for this fight stipulated, he has the right to a rematch. The question is whether he will take it. Eubank seemed genuinely frustrated during the press conference for this fight and he may not wish to rake over old ground, possibly preferring to turn his attentions to Conor Benn after their initial match was cancelled.

Kell Brook

The last we heard, Brook announced his retirement from the fight game in May of last year, having seen off fellow Yorkshireman Amir Khan in a long-held grudge match. But as the prep for the Eubank-Smith match trundled along, Brook’s representative Ben Shalom indicated that the Sheffield fighter would be open to facing the winner. We now know who the winner is, and with Smith’s momentum currently red-hot, a win over Brook would cement his position as one of the fighters to follow in the division. A fine win over Eubank means that Smith can pick his next move, and he may well fancy a shot at a titan like Brook.

Gennadiy Golovkin

Still seen as the world’s leading middleweight even after defeat against Canelo Alvarez, Golovkin has been largely dormant since that fight. With nothing much to prove, Golovkin can sit pat and wait for the best offer, but the chance to stop the tear that Smith is on might well be a temptation the Kazakh fighter can’t resist. Any Smith-Golovkin fight would be massive box-office, wherever the bout took place and, if Smith were to pull off the victory, he’d surely have a title fight in his immediate future.