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Promoter Ben Shalom believes he can stage a “dream” card at Liverpool’s Anfield stadium later this year after Liam Smith’s spectacular victory over Chris Eubank Jr last weekend.
Football fan Smith, who played for his local team the day after his win over Eubank Jr, is a keen Liverpool supporter, as is unified champion Natasha Jonas and star prospect Adam Azim.
The elements could be in place for a major boxing bill at Anfield, especially if Liam’s brother Callum Smith, who will eventually be the mandatory challenger for the WBC light-heavyweight title, were able to take part in the event.
“I think there’s so many reasons why we could do the show. Callum, I’m sure, would want to be on Liam Smith’s undercard. Jonas in a big fight as well, she’s dreamt of that. Adam Azim, who’s a big Liverpool fan, [is] looking like the next superstar in British boxing. So Anfield seems like the place, seems like the destination,” Shalom said.
“We’ve got to speak to the football club. If it can happen we’ll make it happen. It’ll be amazing because there’s never been boxing there and that was the dream when we started this. If we could possibly get it, we’ll make sure it happens.”
For all that the Smith brothers have accomplished in boxing, they haven’t competed at their football club’s stadium.
“They’re a phenomenon, aren’t they?” Shalom said. “One thing they never got to achieve was fighting at Anfield. I think they have an opportunity now to do it with ‘Beefy’ leading the way and Callum Smith where he is as well, it could be incredible.
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Liam Smith stunned Chris Eubank Jr with a sensational stoppage in the fourth-round
“That is the focus and that is the dream,” Shalom continued. “If Chris [Eubank] takes the rematch, that’s where we’d like to do it.”
But Eubank Jr isn’t the only fight that could be available to Liam Smith now.
“Liam Smith has done what he said he’d do and probably in more devastating fashion than even he predicted,” Shalom said. “It now sets up super-fights that you wouldn’t have put together beforehand.
“He’s got massive options, [like] Kell Brook. He could stay 160lbs maybe even ‘GGG,’ [Gennadiy Golovkin] – Liam Smith’s that good.
“The Kell Brook fight’s a massive fight because it’s probably at their natural weights, 154lbs. But to come up to 160lbs and do that to a very, very well respected world level fighter is quite a feat for Liam Smith.
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Liam Smith says he’s back ‘in the mix’ for a world title shot, and admits it would be a ‘dream’ to fight at Anfield.
“Sometimes fighters retire and they never got the fight to prove how good they were, they never got the name. That happens so much,” he continued.
“This was a proper Box Office fight for him to show to the big audience how good he is. He’s done that now, he’s beaten the man everyone knows and everyone watches and now he has options that he could have never dreamed of before this fight.”
Shalom does think that Eubank Jr will eventually trigger the rematch clause and take a second fight with Smith.
“He’s got so many options now and we’ll have to see what Chris decides to do,” the promoter said. “The rematch is the front runner. It will be up to Eubank Jr.
“He’s a winner, he’s a competitor. He gave everything on the night. He’ll want that rematch, I’m convinced of it.
“So I think we will see it again. But we’ll see it in Liverpool.”
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