Chris Eubank Jr ‘wanted to punish’ Liam Williams in Cardiff grudge match: ‘He needed to be taught a lesson’

Chris Eubank Jr continued his war of words with Liam Williams following the duo’s eagerly-awaited grudge match in Cardiff, insisting he wanted to teach his middleweight rival a lesson.

Eubank Jr produced no fewer than four knockdowns en route to a wide points win on hostile territory at the Motorpoint Arena on Saturday night, withstanding a spirited comeback from Williams to tee up what is expected to be a big challenge later in 2022.

With genuine bad blood between the two fighters, the contest was often aggressive and attritional, with the referee kept busy as tensions continually threatened to boil over.

The showboating Eubank Jr conducted his post-fight interview backstage at the British Boxing Board of Control’s (BBBoC) behest, reported Sky, during which he claimed he deliberately didn’t knock Williams out in order to enact revenge for some of the spiteful things said during the long build-up to a contest that was twice delayed due to injury and the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Happy with the performance, I wanted to teach this man a lesson,” Eubank Jr told Sky Sports. “He said some very menacing things to me leading up to this fight and I wanted to punish him.

“I actually thought about it before I got in the ring. I was like, I don’t even want to knock this guy out in the first round, I want to punish him. I want to teach him a lesson.

“I want to get people like that out of boxing. You saw the fight, headbutts, headlocks, all types of crazy stuff. I’m surprised he didn’t get disqualified.

“But I took it like a man and I punished him like I said I would do. It was a fun night.”

Reflecting further on his performance, Eubank Jr said there was never any danger of a Williams comeback despite the latter’s spirited showing in the