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Chris Eubank Jr has had a lot of time to think about where he is going and where he has been in the boxing business.
On Saturday night, here in Riyadh, Eubank Jr will have his 37th fight when he meets Poland’s Kamil Szeremeta. It is all part of a much bigger plan, having accepted a unique responsibility outside the ring following the sudden death of his brother Sebastian.
In recent weeks, the boxer has had a spectacular and very public row with his former promoters and has talked boldly of a series of fights to end his career. He is older, wiser and far from finished.
Now 35, he has been a professional boxer since 2011 and has been winning lesser versions of the world title since 2017, including the IBO and WBA interim belts, while he came up short against George Groves for the full version of the WBA super-middleweight world title.
He held the British middleweight title in 2016 and yet he is still viewed by many as the “son” of the original fighting Eubank, Chris the dad. It is one of boxing’s heaviest shadows to escape.
Chris Eubank retired in 1998, after 52 fights – he was just 31 when he walked away. He was part of the revolution that changed British boxing in the early Nineties, a veteran of nights on terrestrial television with 18 million people watching and the early days of satellite television. Eubank remains, obviously, a high-profile character.
“I was always the son and that is changing,” Eubank Jr said recently. “I’m still Jr, I guess, but that is also changing.”
Eubank Jr has not been in the types of relentless and repeated wars that his father had in the ring, and that has helped him survive so long and still have a future. Eubank Jr has lost three times and been stopped and hurt just the once. During the past five years he has fought just six times.
The fight on Saturday, as part of the official launch of Riyadh Season, is his first fight in over a year. In modern boxing, preservation is easier than it was in the past – boxers can just step back, vanish for a year and then re-emerge without any damage to their reputations.
Eubank Jr wants a fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and a long overdue rematch with Billy Joe Saunders. Both, it has to be said, look like fantasy fights at the moment. Saunders has not fought since he was beaten by Canelo over three years ago, and Canelo, the Mexican idol, appears to have a full dance card for the next year or so. Still, Eubank Jr can certainly dream, and both fights would do tremendous business.
And then there is the bitter continuation of the family rivalry and a fight with Conor Benn. It was meant to take place two years ago, but Benn failed a drug test and it was cancelled in acrimony. The hate continues, a legacy of the two fights that their fathers shared in the early Nineties. Benn is getting closer to a proper return and Eubank Jr is ready. The fight would be enormous.
Eubank Jr might also still have to fight his old promoters. After the explosive exchanges in London two weeks ago, there were apologies, but the hate remains. It seems that all parties are monitoring the exchanges.
“I have to fight for me now,” Eubank Jr said. “I have been trying to prove people wrong for too long. I’m a better fighter now than I have ever been.”
He is probably right, and an impressive win on Saturday would move him closer to something substantial – and move him closer to being free from that damning shadow.
