British boxing’s midwinter hiatus ends on Saturday night in Cardiff as Chris Eubank Jr and Liam Williams meet in a grudge middleweight match which promises to be as bitter in the ring as it has been in the acrimonious buildup. Eubank Jr and Williams are both running out of time and opportunities at the highest level and defeat for either fighter will come as a heavy blow.
The British Boxing Board of Control put the sport into a self-imposed lockdown throughout January “to allow doctors and medical experts to prioritise their work with the NHS during the pandemic.” The doctors’ crucial work at ringside, while monitoring the risk and damage that boxers face, resumes in Cardiff in front of a sold-out arena. They will be especially vigilant when Eubank and Williams enter the ring. While neither man is an elite-level fighter, they offer a sobering reminder of boxing’s dangerous undertow.
In March 2016, Nick Blackwell, who was one of Williams’s closest friends in boxing, defended his British middleweight title against Eubank. Blackwell suffered a sustained beating and was stopped in the 10th round. He then collapsed while the doctor was examining the grotesque swelling above his left eye. Blackwell was rushed to hospital and placed in a medically induced coma for nine days. He survived and partially recovered before he made the mistake of trying to spar behind closed doors, against all advice, and suffered further brain damage.
That unsettling memory should temper excessive enthusiasm about the “needle” that clearly exists between Williams and Eubank. Their mutual dislike of each other appears genuine and the spite is deepened by the fact that they both feel they have to win this fight. Williams, an intensely proud Welshman, will have the vociferous backing of his home crowd, but he returns to the ring after a chastening defeat to Demetrius Andrade when the American won a wide decision and retained his WBO world middleweight title last April.
Andrade, usually an ultra-cautious boxer with an awkward style, knocked down Williams in the second round and dominated the contest. The gulf between domestic and world level was made glaringly apparent to Williams. It was also his third loss, after Liam Smith beat him twice in 2017. A fourth defeat in his 28th fight would end Williams’ remaining world title aspirations at the age of 29.
Eubank, the marginal favourite, has won 31 of his 33 bouts. But his two defeats, against Billy Joe Saunders in 2014 and George Groves in 2018, were clear-cut and highlighted his limitations. Yet he has always talked in the provocative style of his father, Chris Eubank Sr, who was an even more outrageous pantomime villain in the 1990s. Eubank Jr has won his last five fights and victory over Williams could secure him another crack at a world title. But defeat would be just as crushing for him, at the age of 32, as for the Welshman. Such intensity and rivalry could produce a riveting domestic classic.
The undercard will be illuminated by Claressa Shields, the double Olympic gold medallist who defends her WBA, WBC and IBF world middleweight titles against Ema Kozin. The brilliant American should win comfortably and set up her return to the UK in the summer when she will meet Savannah Marshall, the WBO champion, and the only woman to have ever beaten Shields in a boxing ring. They were amateurs then but Shields and Marshall are destined for a fight that will elevate the rise of women’s boxing even further.
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Caroline Dubois, the prodigiously talented 21-year-old who was so disappointed to narrowly lose out on a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, makes her professional debut against Vaida Masiokaite, a Lithuanian journeywoman. Dubois expects an easy win to begin a career that is rich in promise and should scale the heights of boxing in the coming years.
For the loser of the main event, whether that is Eubank or Williams, such dreams of glory will come to a shuddering end. It promises to be a night full of stark dangers and vivid contrasts.
