Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Smith is live on Sky Sports Box Office this Saturday; book now if you are a Sky or non-Sky subscriber; Joseph Parker, Richard Riakporhe, Frazer Clarke and Chris Kongo all feature on an exciting undercard in Manchester
Saturday 21 January 2023 08:15, UK
The Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Smith undercard features intriguing match-ups, world title hopefuls and some very heavy punchers.
Below are the bouts that will be on the Eubank vs Smith undercard at the Manchester Arena this Saturday.
The live show on Sky Sports Box Office will start from 6pm.
Riakporhe is an unbeaten power-punching cruiserweight from South London on the verge of a world title shot.
His 73 per cent KO ratio and highlight-reel finishes show he is a cruiserweight force. Riakporhe, who stands at 6ft 5ins, won fights to elevate him up the world rankings last year, stopping clever southpaw Deion Jumah and halting Fabio Turchi with a ferocious body shot finish.
He is demanding a world title fight next after this.
But former world champion Glowacki stands between him and those dreams. Highly experienced, the Pole has only lost three times before and that was to the very best in the division: Oleksandr Usyk, Mairis Briedis and Lawrence Okolie.
Glowacki has taken key wins over Marco Huck, Steve Cunningham and Maxim Vlasov. He has claimed 20 of his 32 victories inside the distance and is a dangerous puncher himself.
This bout promises to be an exciting clash for the British and Commonwealth welterweight titles.
Essuman is unbeaten in 18 fights and step by step has become a force on the UK welterweight scene. With an impressive performance he hurt Chris Jenkins to the body and halted him in eight rounds to win the British and Commonwealth titles.
He has already defended those titles three times, beating Danny Ball, Darren Tetley and most recently Sam Antwi.
Bermondsey's Kongo caught the eye when he broke down and halted Luther Clay. He was unbeaten in 12 pro bouts before he dropped a decision against Michael McKinson in Gibraltar. Kongo rebuilt from that. Most recently he took a solid 10-round win over Sebastian Formella, joining Conor Benn and Shawn Porter as the only people to have beaten the German.
Joseph Parker is the star heavyweight, a former world champion, who has fought a who's who of boxers on the British scene.
He lost his world title to Anthony Joshua and boxed Dillian Whyte. He has beaten Hughie Fury as well as Derek Chisora twice. In a breakout performance Joe Joyce imposed a first stoppage loss on Parker. Now he is looking to bounce back.
No one, though, was expecting Jack Massey to step up from cruiserweight and in his first heavyweight contest take on the former world champion. A former national amateur champion, as a professional Massey has only ever lost to Riakporhe and he will have his local crowd roaring him on as he looks to spring an upset.
Olympic super-heavyweight bronze medallist Frazer Clarke goes into the fifth bout of his professional career. Argentina's Espindola in contrast has had 13 pro contests. Although he has lost six of those, already he has boxed good standard opponents, going 10 rounds with Ivan Dychko, a former Olympic medallist, and eight with good prospect Solomon Dacres.
Harris is a towering heavyweight prospect from Coventry who has won his last two contests by stoppage in the first round and he will be looking for another explosive finish.
Although a novice pro Forrest was a GB boxer as an amateur and trains alongside Liam Smith as a pro. The Scotsman will be a cruiserweight to watch.
Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Smith is on Saturday January 21, live on Sky Sports Box Office. Book it now if you are a Sky TV subscriber or a Non-Sky TV subscriber. Buy tickets here.
