.jpg)
You can forgive Kalle Sauerland for sounding a little over-excited.
On Saturday, in front of a full house at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, he’s putting on Chris Eubank Jr-Liam Williams on Sky Sports and it’s a fight that has captured the imagination.
Eubank, Sauerland’s fighter, is going to get booed out of the building and he’s going to love it, and Sauerland will get immense enjoyment from it, too.
But he also expects those same fans will ultimately leave disappointed with the outcome, because he’s convinced Eubank will win well.
“I know it will work positively on Junior,” he said of his man Eubank, and how he expects him to respond to the raucous Welsh crowd. “We know that and I know that because he’s been there before with the stuff he’s gone through in the past. From the cauldron of hate he will rise well. The question is how does Liam deal with it. I know he’s been in big domestic fights but it will be a very partisan crowd and do you rise or crumble with that on your shoulders? Does it lift you or stifle you with pressure? There’s a lot of psychology in it.”
Many expect a war this weekend and Sauerland is certain they’ll get one, even if it might take a little time to catch fire.
“I think if you strip it back to what they do, and take out [trainers] Roy Jones and Adam Booth for a second, they both [fighters] come forward,” Sauerland continued.
“I think the first round is cagey, though. I think they’ll both try tactical stuff from the trainers and then I think something will happen and it will break out.”
It’s not just the psychology of the fight that’s been interesting but the build-up, too. Williams has been calling for this fight for years, back when Eubank denied he knew who the Welshman was.
It’s a grudge that has made a fight easy to sell and one that has caught the eye of more causal observers.
“Whenever you’ve got that [a grudge],” Kalle continued, “You know you’re going to get something good. And where there’s some spice on it, it does add to the build-up and the fight because they go that extra mile. After two and a half years of back and forths between them… what I thought was interesting was it wasn’t on stage when the cameras were on, it was the moment the cameras stopped and the stage wasn’t there anymore when Liam had a pop, and Chris had a pop back; in very different ways. That happens when there’s real needle.”
Sauerland said Williams had shown Eubank respect in the week, but Eubank then believed he clearly didn’t respect him or else he wouldn’t have said the things he has in the media over the years. The promoter has also seen the volatile side of Williams this week.
“With Eubank, you’ll never see much of a difference, whether he has a problem with the opponent, whether he doesn’t know the opponent, his pulse doesn’t move,” Sauerland explained. “I’ve been with him before small fights and very big fights and there’s not much you can read from him. He’s the best poker player. He stays as cool as a cucumber. With Liam, who I’ve never worked with before, it’s clearly burning up in him. A lot of fights are lost like that, when they burn up all week, and all that energy gets taken up before the fight and he needs to guard against that. Will that make him make mistakes? Will that make him that bit too brave? Eubank is a fantastic counterpuncher.”
Williams is promoted by MTK and Sky Sports televise in the UK, with Eubank-Williams heading a month that also sees Josh Taylor fight Jack Caterall and Amir Khan finally meet Kell Brook.
Sauerland, obviously, says this is the pick of the three.
“It has a real throwback feel to it, and if anyone associated with those big nineties fights with the Eubank, Collins, Benn nights remembers, it’s a bit of that… It just has that feel to it. I’m not going to sell it as a pick ‘em fight because if Eubank is on fire and Williams is on fire, there’s still only one winner for me. I’ll be very clear on that. I don’t see it as a pick ‘em fight. Not putting Williams down, but there are levels. Eubank still has a lot of boxes to check to be seen as a great, but that’s the path now, and you can’t fault the man for trying. He’s taken on Groves, DeGale, Saunders, Abraham but ultimately a lot of his career he’s been alone, and self-taught.”
And that is where Sauerland sees a big difference going in to the weekend’s fight. Williams is having his first camp with new coach Adam Booth while Eubank has been working with Roy Jones for nearly two years.
“Adam is a very good friend of mine and he will have a fantastic strategy to beat Chris Eubank Jnr, I’m sure of it,” Kalle went on. “I’m sure he’ll be telling Williams that strategy but he’s had five weeks, so that strategy may work for a round, it may work for two and it might even work for three rounds but there’ll come a point where Williams will get frustrated with something that he’s done because that’s what a fighter does. You need to instill your methodologies and you need training camps. You need the camps together. You need that time together. Covid has had terrible consequences on the sport, but one thing that it had for Chris Eubank Jr was he had a year and a half with Roy Jones on a farm. That’s the sort of time you need to do it together. You can’t do it in months. You can’t change the fundamentals of a fighter overnight. I’ve not seen it done before.”