High stakes: Chris Eubank Jr faces Conor Benn in a huge clash in London on Saturday
(Picture: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)In the son, there are echoes of the father. There is that same unapologetic confidence, some say arrogance. Close your eyes and the voice of the younger occasionally breaks into that of the elder.
Chris Eubank Jr is adamant he has long since stepped out of the shadow of his dad, and yet on Saturday night he fights the son of his father’s greatest nemesis. That legacy still looms large.
Unlike his past fights, which were all about personal glory, financial gain and his climb up the middleweight division, this one, he says, is entirely for his father. And yet the problem with that is his dad is opposed to it all. Just a fortnight ago, he tried to get the whole thing called off — and pay £300,000 for doing so.
Amid all the ranting and raving, the understandable cause of that opposition comes from a position of pain a year after the loss of one son, Sebastian, to a heart attack. The elder of the Eubank brothers has not tried to talk his father around to his blockbuster fight at the O2 on Saturday night, although he has empathy for such a protective view.
“He understands what I’m capable of, I’m a fighter, but he did lose a son over a year ago, so that has most definitely changed his mindset and outlook on life in general,” he said. “He doesn’t want me to take any risks and I understand that.
“But I can’t let his worries and fears affect me as, at the end of the day, I signed the contract, I signed on the dotted line, so that means I have to do what I said I would, regardless of how anyone else feels, even if it’s my father. I have a job to do.”
The memory of Sebastian looms large, a painting of him hanging on the wall of Eubank Jr’s gym. The brothers would often talk about Chris fighting Conor Benn. Sebastian would ask, “Imagine if you guys fought, how do you think it would go?” The answer from them both was always a Eubank win, and his brother’s memory acts as a huge motivation to follow through on that fraternal prediction.
“He watches over me every single day I train, he’s watched over my entire camp,” he said. “He has a son that I now call my son, I have to provide for that kid. I have to make that kid proud, I have to make my family name proud. I know he would have wanted me to do that. I’m not going to let him down.”
Eubank Jr calls this the trilogy fight, 32 years on from when his father and Nigel Benn stepped into the ring for their first brutal world title fight, which Eubank won, and 29 years on from their rematch, no less thrilling for ending in a draw.
This generational fight has been a long time in the making, eventually coming about by Eubank Jr agreeing to fight at 157lb, a weight he has not been since the age of 18. He admits it is a risk, and cuts down his perceived performance advantage, but says that he will still win even at 60 per cent of his best because, “I believe I’m so superior in my boxing ability than Conor Benn is”.
If I can’t beat Conor Benn, then I’m not the fighter I thought I was and I don’t deserve a title shot
He laughs at suggestions that his drop down in weight makes it a 50-50 fight, saying that is merely a lack of understanding of both boxing and his ability.
“I love hearing that Conor has a shot at becoming the first guy to knock Chris Eubank Jr out,” he said. “That makes the fight all the more exciting and, when I win, it’ll be all the more impressive. I’m thinking, ‘Wow, this is absurd, this is nuts people really think this is going to be any type of competition’.”
In the build-up, Eubank Jr has filmed himself eating burgers to highlight just how unfazed he is by the weight issue. In addition, last month, his dad said he just hoped he was staying out of nightclubs in the fight build-up, accentuating the potential danger for complacency.
That, he insists, is not a problem for what he labels the biggest bout of his career amid the hype, interest, money and the family name to uphold. Such is his confidence, he declares he will retire if he loses, never again to return to the ring. Many a boxer has said the same, so why is his threat any different?
“My father retired at 32, I’m 33,” he replied. “If I can’t beat Conor, I sail off into the sunset, and that’s huge pressure because I love the sport, love what I do, I don’t want to give up. So, I cannot lose this fight. For one, it is a physical impossibility he can beat me in a one-on-one fight in a boxing ring. Also, I can’t lose because, if I lose, I’m finished. I have nowhere else to go. If I can’t beat Conor Benn, then I’m not the fighter I thought I was and I don’t deserve to go on to fight for a middleweight title.”
As the greener of the two — 21 fights to his 34 — Eubank Jr argues Benn has nothing to lose, although he agrees there are the shared stakes of upholding their respective family names.
But, at the end of it all, he predicts a case of history merely repeating itself. As he puts it: “Eubanks beat Benns. The Eubanks are a superior fighting family in the boxing history books and I can’t muddy that legacy, I can’t disrespect that legacy by losing 30 years later.”
