Mild-mannered Kamil Szeremeta may be disguising upset potential

If you blinked, you might have missed middleweight Kamil Szeremeta’s comments this week, but don’t worry—you didn’t miss much. Don’t let his personality fool you, though. He could prove to be a tougher test for Chris Eubank Jr. than most expect.

Szeremeta finds himself headlining high on the bill against the more popular, heavily favored Eubank, the son of Chris Eubank. The 12-round bout is part of Riyadh Season, tacked onto the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol undercard. While DAZN gets the undercard, the main event will air on ESPN+.

Szeremeta (25-2-2, 8 KOs) is the classic case of an opponent brought in to make the favorite look good. Think of him like the opening act at a concert—there to fill time, but no one’s really paying attention. At 34, with a low knockout percentage, Szeremeta has somehow managed to stay relevant despite two draws in his last six fights and back-to-back stoppage losses to Gennadiy Golovkin and Jaime Munguia. 

On the other side, Eubank, now 35, is still a recognizable name, even if “active” isn’t the word anyone would use to describe his career lately. This fight marks Eubank’s return to the ring after a 13-month hiatus—a recurring theme for him. Last year, he was knocked out by Liam Smith but managed to redeem himself by stopping Smith in their rematch. 

This will be his fifth fight since the pandemic. Based on the press conference hints, middleweight Hamzah Sheeraz could be next, but Szeremeta might just have a chance to ruin those plans—though he’s given us little reason to believe that.

“My plan is simple,” Szeremeta said through a translator at the grand arrivals. “I want to go into the ring and go out as a winner.” Groundbreaking stuff.

While Eubank fully embraced the Saudi experience, strutting around in a thobe at every event, Szeremeta looked more like a lost tourist in casual designer clothes, blending in with the crowd. When asked about fighting in Saudi Arabia, Szeremeta was characteristically neutral: “I’m very happy to be here. It’s my first time. I hope I win on Saturday so I can come back.”

The issue for Szeremeta is that nearly everyone’s counting him out—and for good reason. He’s done nothing to suggest otherwise. Eubank got knocked out by Smith last year, but at least Smith had a resume. As much as you might want to give Szeremeta a shot, Eubank’s inconsistency doesn’t change the fact that Szeremeta gives you very little to work with. He sounded like a politician glued to his talking points: “We’ve got our tactic with our trainer, and we’re going to show you on Saturday,” he said when pressed on his strategy.

At the press conference, Szeremeta was asked one solitary question. His answer? Predictably vague. “I can adapt my style. I can switch my style. I love to fight,” Szeremeta said via translator.

To be fair, it’s not just Szeremeta. For what’s supposed to be a big fight week, the pageantry has been dialed down considerably with no fighter giving notable quotes.

Meanwhile, Eubank, not content with just wearing a thobe, arrived at the press conference wielding a sword (or something like a sword), because why not? Eubank stole the show, of course, and talk of future big fights dominated the conversation, not his upcoming fight. There’s an unspoken concern hovering: How does Eubank avoid another upset? It’s not like it hasn’t happened before. His response sounded like something out of a motivational poster. 

“A lifetime’s worth of preparation and dedication is how you make sure you don’t slip up on fights like this,” Eubank said. “People ask, ‘How was camp? How’s your weight? How you feeling?’ It’s not about a camp, it’s about how you’ve lived the last 20 years of your life.”