Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jr will return to Manchester for round two in their increasingly tense rivalry. So, in true boxing cliché style, let’s talk repeat or revenge.

After the emphatic conclusion to January’s battle, it is easy to question why we even need a second chapter. It doesn’t get much more definitive than Liam’s win first time around.

But factor in the lack of big fights on the market, the evident enmity between the pair and of course, the ‘elbow’ - maybe this fight does work. So buckle in for the obligatory chain of insults, inquiries, and inanities as we build towards June 17.

Dissimilar to first time round, Smith will enter the ring as favourite. No doubt by the time fight night rolls around, Eubank Jr may well have convinced us all that this is his Roy Jones vs Montell Griffin moment.

But it will take something Eubank Jr has been notoriously apprehensive of throughout his career… change. 

The nucleus of his now familiar camp will remain the same, but it is his timidity in the ring that must differ. In the first fight, Eubank Jr struck a figure of fear and indecision.

As the bigger man, it was surprising to see such little eagerness to engage. Whether that was a tactical approach, or just the simple fact that he was petrified to get hit, we don’t know.  

Eubank Jr is one of those fighters who boxes in their own timeframe. Yet sometimes his positive intent can come across deceiving. Looking busy is one thing, but actually throwing shots is another.

Of course, it’s never as simple as ‘stick it on him’, but it would go a long way further than what we saw last time out. What I think he does need is a battery in the back, and the green light to get to work.

Try and make Smith uncomfortable. Something that will not be done by holding up close.

In fear of claiming to be an expert, I will acknowledge that devising a gameplan for someone with the boxing backbone of Liam Smith is no easy task. This is a man who through his 37 career fights has been exposed to almost everything.

Including that of a high-profile rematch when he came out as a double winner over Welsh rival Liam Williams back in 2017. The formula for both of those fights was different, and Liam will know that this is the case with Chris too.

However, you can still expect another lightning-fast start.

Liam’s reward of tucking Chris into the bed of retirement will be too much for those hands to contain. Aided by the comfort of knowing he is capable of hurting, dropping, and stopping his man, he will be itching to hear that first bell.

All roads point towards a fan-friendly affair which, if we are to get, may well end in a fashion just as dramatic as the last.

Only seven weeks until we find out.

Until then, the sport has an exceptional feast to open barbecue season. Undisputed fights, undefeated champions and the three-way promotional dick-swinging contest that is May 27.

Take your bloody pick.

Oscar Bevis