CHRIS EUBANK JR buried his bitter grudge with Liam Williams by flooring him FOUR times in a punishing points win over the Welshman
The 29-year-old Clydach man talked his way into the big-money middleweight bout by insulting Eubank and members of his family for over a year.
But British ring legend Chris Sr and other members of the family were ringside to watch their boy secure the decision with scores of 116-109, 116-108 and 117-109
Eubank Jr was booed into the ring by a hostile Cardiff crowd that had watched the national rugby side get trounced earlier by Ireland in the Six Nations.
Williams whipped himself and the partisan fans into a frenzy, marching around the ring and staring deeply into the darkness, looking menacing and spitting on the floor in Jr’s direction.
Roars of ‘Liam, Liam’ echoed around the arena and helped the local land the first few jabs.
But then a perfectly timed Eubank jab connected and sat Williams down on his shorts, he beat the count but lost the round.
Eubank was happy boxing on the back foot and letting Williams push the pressure and he walked him on to a crisp right hand that floored the Welshman again in the second.
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Williams looked at his new corner team, headed by Adam Booth, in shell-shocked desperation but beat the count again.
Eubank was talking to Williams by the third, goading him in the heat of battle and he was warned over punching on the break.
When Williams threw and missed so wildly he span 360 degrees, Eubank even waved the pretend matador’s red rag to the raging bull.
The final few seconds was a shootout and then Eubank connected after the bell, referee Mark Lyson dragged him away and Williams’ team complained of a headbutt.
Then Williams landed one in the fourth that wobbled the 32-year-old but he tried to laugh it off.
And his smile was wider seconds later when he dropped Williams for the hat-trick.
Eubank kept trash talking and showboating too, silencing the audience and slashing at Williams’ dwindling confidence.
Williams was buzzed again at the start of the fifth by a right hand and his swollen cheekbones were starting to change colour.
But he kept attacking Eubank and trying to reverse the tide of the fight and enjoyed some clean shots just before the bell.
When Williams got his fans cheering in the sixth, Eubank had the audacity to look out into the seats and tell them they were backing the wrong horse.
The seventh was scrappy and violent but there were better moments in eight when Eubank landed a right uppercut but was also tagged back by a one-two.
The manicured beard Williams mocked repeatedly in the build-up was whacked by a peach of right in the ninth but those whiskers are seriously tough and Eubank did not wobble.
Williams improved in the back-half of the fight but the damage to his side of the scorecard was already done and Eubank could be confident of getting his arm raised as long as he completed the bout.
By the eleventh Williams right eye was almost punched completely shut and he was floored for a fourth time.
Eubank danced for the final three minutes, mocking Williams whenever he could but he got a late warning when cracked with a heavy blow on the ropes.
But Eubank added insult to injury by dancing and laughing in the final seconds so the crowd filled the arena with boos while he climbed the ropes to celebrate.
And after the bout he told Sky Sports that he set out to teach Williams ‘a lesson’ after all the trash-talking in the build-up to the fight.
Jr said: “I wanted to teach this man a lesson. He’d said some very menacing things to me.
“I thought, ‘I don’t even wanna knock this guy out in the first round, I wanna punish him.’ I wanna get people like that out of boxing.”
