Liam Smith’s Trainer Says ‘Threats’ Forced Smith To Take Chris Eubank Jr. Rematch Earlier Than Expected
Joe McNally the trainer of Liam Smith believes his pupil was forced into the date to rematch Chris Eubank Jr. on Saturday.
Smith shocked many when he knocked out Eubank Jr. in the fourth round back in January. The two then had their rematch on Saturday night, but Smith has said he had a bad weight cut as according to his trainer, the date was way too soon for them.
“This is a fact, my own self, as his coach, said, ‘Son, there’s no way you can fight this date. You’re too heavy,’” McNally told Boxing News+ (h/t BoxingScene). “You’re gonna need at least eight to 10 weeks to get the weight off. On the consensus that his back wasn’t 100% to do his road work, to put the work in to get the weight off to start camp. It’s a bit harsh. His weight was good until the injury. [Smith said], ‘No, I’ll do it, I’ll do it, I’ll do it.’
“And he literally had to be in—I ran the numbers eight weeks out with the nutritionist—he had to be in a 15,000-calorie deficiency a week. One thing in life that don’t lie is numbers. And sometimes, theoretically, that can be contradictory because of the autonomy of the human body, but he had to be in a major calorific deficiency the whole of the camp and fight week even worse. We had check weight testings, two or three of them, and he hit the goals. But he hit the goals and [was] f—–. Not hitting the goals and being full of beans.
“He hit the goals and he was shattered. On fight night, only people with two glass eyes couldn’t see that he was f—–. I asked for the fight to be moved. I’m just disappointed in the people behind the promotions and sh!t like that obviously didn’t listen, and the threats that came to Liam.”
According to Joe McNally, he says he told Liam Smith he couldn’t fight on this date. However, if he pulled out. the Sauerlands would sue Smith and Sky Sports for loss of earnings, so he decided to fight and he ended up losing by 10th-round TKO.
“I said to Liam, you can’t fight this date,” McNally said. “Look, the facts that I got is, well, if I don’t accept this date, Chris is gone. I’ve lost the fight. Then he’s left in limbo, which the fight he got threatened with is Chris is gonna fight Conor Benn. But that fight was never going to happen anytime soon because obviously Conor’s gotta sort the stuff out with the [British Boxing] Board [of Control] and then he weren’t involved in the fight if it went ahead in Saudi and lose all our licenses.
“So, they’re literally shooting themselves in the foot. And then the other threat is if we changed the date—so when you’re training and your back’s f—– you need to go and get a doctor’s report and evaluation. He’s injured still. Sauerlands would sue Liam and the promotion and Sky for loss of earnings. That’s a fact. The Sauerlands got a broadcasting deal with Sky so why would they sue Sky and Liam for loss of earnings? He’s injured. There are letters. It’s just a load of bullsh!t, mate. It’s disappointing, isn’t that we could’ve had a cracking Eubank-Smith 2, but we got a bit of farce, really, haven’t we?”
What do you make of Liam Smith’s trainer advising him to not fight last Saturday?
