Smith and Alimkhanuly: In their rematch on July 1, Liam Smith is aiming to defeat Chris Eubank Jr. one more and then contend for a second world championship.
Smith, a fighter from Liverpool who formerly held the WBO super-welterweight title, wants to win the title twice.
He would be eager to take on Steven Butler’s opponent, Janibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan, who is the fearsome WBO middleweight champion.
Because his world championship is the prize, Smith said to Sky Sports, “He’s not really high risk, low reward.”
“[Alimkhanuly] has been knocked down a notch by the Denzel Bentley battle, but it was still a very solid fight. I’ve been familiar with him for a while; I saw him compete in the Olympics and witnessed him defeat [Anthony] Fowler. He’s still only fought 13 times, but he’s a good fighter.”
That second world title is his ultimate objective. “I don’t sit here thinking, ‘Wow, I’m the guy, everyone’s talking about me,’ if I get spoken about.” He said, “It is what it is.”
“The world title was won and presumably put on top of the washing basket. This is one of the things I’m heartbroken about and why I want to be a world champion again. I simply didn’t value my position as world champion.
“I had no idea what size it was. I’m really determined to win the world championship once more because of this. Since I would treasure every little piece of it. I am aware of what that signifies.
“I’d love that.”
A second win against Eubank would validate Smith’s status as a top-tier middleweight.
“I don’t know how many years I’ve been the finest 154-pound [boxer] in Britain. I’m now 160 pounds best too,” Smith declared.
“I’ll simply keep making the case for what I can manage. I’m going up against Chris to show that I’m the superior fighter. Now, I believe, people will completely understand it.
“Because it was a middleweight match, many people could have believed Chris would prevail even if they may have thought I was a better fighter than him.”
“He was categorised as a large middleweight, and I was moving up to that weight class. That may have been selected by several persons. But now that others are aware of it, they will say, “Never mind, I’m big enough for it, I can fully hurt him at it too.”
“You just released a poll asking, ‘Who wins this fight?'” According to my estimation, the percentages would be 80-20.”
To qualify for another crack at the world championship, whether at middleweight or forcing him to switch back to super-welterweight, he must defeat Eubank Jr.
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