Liam Smith accused of knocking Chris Eubank Jr out with illegal elbow

Chris Eubank Jr says Liam Smith ’embarrassed himself’ in controversial exchange

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Liam Smith produced his best performance on the biggest night of his career to knock out Chris Eubank Jr on Saturday night. Liverpool’s Smith brought an explosive end to his bitter feud with Eubank Jr as he landed a brutal uppercut in a flurry of punches to edge one step closer to a world title shot. 

Smith stopped Eubank Jr for the first time in his career as he defied the odds to leave the Brighton boxer on the canvas in Manchester after moving up from super-welterweight to middleweight for the bout. 

An intense first three rounds had been contested evenly before Smith unloaded, knocking Eubank Jr down twice in quick succession before referee Victor Loughlin stepped in to wave the fight off. 

Smith landed several key left hooks in a devastating combination, with the upper cut proving the decisive shot to send Eubank Jr to the canvas. And the fourth round stoppage brought a conclusive end to a rivalry that got ugly in fight week as the duo traded taunts at Thursday’s press-conference.

And Eubank Jr was left with a gruesome swollen eye with Smith doing serious damage to his opponent with the gloves in front of a lively Manchester crowd. But some boxing fans on social media have suggested that Smith’s knockout actually came from an “illegal elbow”. 

In his clinical combination, boxing page @BoxingKingdom14 shows a pause of the fight, claiming Smith’s left elbow may have made contact with Eubank Jr’s head, which prompted him to hit the canvas. 

“Was Liam Smith’s knockout caused by an elbow?,” the post read. Some boxing fans were intrigued by the apparent new evidence, with one even claiming the elbow caused the knockout ‘without doubt’.

But others did not agree, with one fight fan concluding: “Clearly for me the uppercut and left hook took his legs away and nothing else.” Another fan sarcastically replied: “The uppercut that sent him to space helped”.

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Eubank Jr impressively got back to his feet after the first knock down but was soon hunted down by a fired-up Smith, who dispatched his opponent in style. And Eubank made no reference to any suggestion of an “illegal elbow” as he welcomed a rematch, instead insisting he had been hit with a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ punch.

“He caught me with a once-in-a-lifetime shot,” he told Sky Sports. “I got up, I recovered, he put it on me again with a few more shots and the referee decided it was enough. I felt like I could go on. I felt like I was aware of what was happening, but it was the referee’s decision and I have to respect it.

“I felt like I was dominating the fight before that happened, so I think we’ve got an exciting opportunity, at some point in the future, to have that rematch.”

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