Factor* Ring rust. His reflex timing wasn’t there I’ve never known an up coming prospect (Eubank) trying to develop their skills under a new coach be so inactive! Surely he should’ve been out regularly in non title 10 rounders at like 165-166lb, and should be before a rematch
He knows how to box, he knows how to fight. If he was called David Smith and grew up in Walsall people would be saying he's a good little fighter with some decent enough wins against the likes of Spike O'Sullivan, Blackwell and Yildrim etc. and a narrow points loss to Billy Joe Saunders. I'm no Jnr fan but quite simply he lost to the better man on Saturday, Liam Smith is a very good boxer and he's grown up living and breathing it in a different way to how Jnr has.
if he was David Smith from Walsall he wouldn’t have had top level trainers and promoters from the start (who he squandered repeatedly) due to his name and family connections. you can’t divorce everything from context. but hey at least he’s better than Campbell Hatton.
Of course he was a good fighter. The problem for me was that he never really listening or took instruction for most of his career. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks at his age. He had Booth vs Spike and had he have stuck with him (and listened) I think he could have potentially picked up a strap. Difficult to see where he goes now. He is no longer durable / can’t make the weight good, as well as lacking power and physicality at 168lb. Tough decisions to make.
If David Smith from Walsall was throwing 30-punch combos and landing 7-8 uppercuts in a row, he’d of been raved about.
He got into the game too late. A conventional trainer would have both helped and hindered him. He bridged the gap on the competition a bit with relentless unorthodox training methods and got good success with it but it did leave holes in his game. The problem is most conventional trainers wouldn,t have allowed him to train as relentlessnessly or in the way that he did. Training him like say groves or billy joe or liam smith would have left him further away from them. He was bridging the gap a bit tho with his own training methods. Nothing in the billy joe fight. This is a guy thats been fighting since he was about 6. One of britains best talents at one point and groves was a bit too big for him. They underestimated how much each pound is accounted for nowadays with sports science. Went to roy....and roy has shown him stuff. But its too late. 21 would have probably been too late. Needs to go back to his old methods to get any success. Relentless training. Hitting punching machines relentlessly etc. You can still beat good fighters with holes in your game. The big question is can he still fight at a pace with that type of training with the weight cut. If not... needs to go up in weight.
Sr was right all along, the kid wouldn’t listen and the Conor thing may of cost him his career (‘greedy pig’ Sr called him)