Chins

[handsofstone]

Seen a lot of reasons people blaming Eubank's weight making or his moving up and down divisions as the reason why he got knocked down/out, more than one on Twitter saying his punch resistance has gone, while I agree Jr has a solid beard, he did get rocked by O'Sullivan years ago albeit momentarily


It's a cliche but the best chins are the ones that dont get hit, there are rare exceptions like Joe Joyce who can eat punches like Pez sweets but more often than not guys with durability don't get hit with the sort of punches that should be knocking them out, Eubank Jr's defecnce has always been one of his most underrated assets

Last night he got careless in the corner, tried to avoid shots with movement and reflexes instead of tucking up or holding on until he got out of the corners and got caught with a series of big shots that would've had the same effect regardless of what his weight was, unless anyone can remind me of him walking through similar monster punches, a bit similar to Roy Jones Jr incidentally, his chin was never in question until Tarver cleaned his clock then all of a sudden it was moving up to Heavyweight that was the reason rather than the fact he was actually taking clean shots for a chance, the moving up then back down might have some sort of bearing but more of his reflexes then resistance

Imo

[Controversial]

Defence can certainly be a factor, Nigel Benn looked quite vulnerable in his early fights but once he boxed more intelligently and not so wild he had less rocky moments. Eubank Jr didn’t look as strong as he had in previous fights to me, whether he was drained at the weight I don’t know, the photo he posted before the weigh in he looked really shredded.

[handsofstone]

I thought the first 3 rounds were your archetypical Chris Eubank Jr fight, didn't do much first couple rounds and looked strong in the 3rd and right up until the end, Eubank can't fight on inside so initiated a lot of the holding in the first 2 when Smith was trying to get up close, by the 3rd he was tattooing Smith with repeated uppercuts which he's been known to do in the past

I strongly doubt any version of Eubank Jr avoids going down in the 4th for the first KD, infact his chin done well to not go down 3 or 4 punches before, the left uppercut especially nearly took his head clean off his shoulders

[dan28uk]

i think his weight cutting in his last few camps has possibly played a role and that fact he didnt see the well timed shots also massively key i dont like this granite chin tagline yes other fighters can take more and better shots than others look at paul williams against martinez 2 a well timed shot can ko anyone

[Ruthless-RKO]

Yeh. Smith did a good job once he got CEJ in that corner.

Caught him one and just kept throwing.

Smith wasn’t gonna stop til CEJ was floored.

Landed some clean shots in there too.

[Old bones Ian]

In some ways I agree , Eubank has always shown a reliable chin but last night he got caught simple as , for me the difference this time was he had his head down and didn't see the shots coming that shattered his equilibrium.
One KO loss doesn't mean a dodgy chin now, but he's in his 30's now and hasn't been active so I don't know if this is the end

[TheLeprechaun]

Roy was dropped pretty heavily by Lou Del Valle in his prime. Legs went completely. I think his chin was what it was and the punches he took from Tarver that hurt him would have hurt him anyway. Losing the 25 pounds of muscle he put on for the Ruiz fight definitely wouldn't have helped but it was his decline in reflexes that allowed him to get hit and hurt which was the main problem. So in that sense I agree but Eubank looked a but fragile last night. Even the overhands that liam landed early had me raising my eyebrows as it was looking like Liam was the puncher in the fight. Eubank was running after Groves and took some shots there. His whole style early in his career like that wouldn't have been possible if he didn't have the chin as he wouldn't have had the confidence to fight so aggressively.

[tonyevs]

One of the advantages a smaller fighter often has over bigger opponents is speed - and as the adage goes - it's the punches you don't see that knocks you out.

When did Eubank jr last fight someone as skilled and solid all around as Liam Smith? On paper it was Liam Williams .. but Williams appeared very fragile that night so I guess you'd have to look right back to Groves.

[Verdi]

Joyce actually moves his head with the incoming punches pretty well. He's no Pernall Whittaker, but his defence is underrated.

[keithmoonhangover]

Motivation and focus are both big contributors. Boxing is 80-90% mental according to Mike Tyson and SRL.

[KiwiRider]

Yeh. Smith did a good job once he got CEJ in that corner.

Caught him one and just kept throwing.

Smith wasn’t gonna stop til CEJ was floored.

Landed some clean shots in there too.

On the slomo replay there were three full power connects in quick succession for the first KD. That's a lot for anyone. And his head was jerked left to right with shots- that befuddless everyone - chin doesn't even come into it.
I don't think any less of Eubank jnr or his chin. He is still a sub- British level nepo-baby

[margaret thatcher]

liam hit mungia clean plenty and didnt budge him, also hit vargas (a career 147) loads before stopped on feet. i dont think the shots vs eubank would've been having the same effect on most top guys. eubank been f@cking around with his weight too much

[a force]

Weight definitely plays a part. I remember Kell Brook getting buzzed by Senchenko but a few fights later he was eating flush shots off of Golovkin.

End of the day Eubank’s had size & strength advantages for years at middleweight. Maybe his lucks run out & he can’t make it healthily anymore but still fair play to Liam Smith. He was the one moving up in weight to fight the big, strong middleweight. Even if Eubank’s punch resistance isn’t what it was Smith wasn’t to know that.

[Kit]

Genetics, age, weight depletion, ability to ride/time a shot and fitness.

Punch resistance will be hampered without all of these factors being optimum.

Look at Chris Byrd who could take power shots by the top heavy’s but was starched by a light heavy when boiling down.

Then Oscar De la Hoya who was dropped several times on the way up at Super Feather but had a great chin against world class welters, Light middles and even middleweights.