Chris Eubank Jr has admitted he doesn’t know what to expect from long-time rival Conor Benn ahead of their mouthwatering showdown this weekend.
The British boxing stars are scheduled to go head-to-head on Saturday night at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Both men were due to fight back in 2022, however, their dust-up was scrapped just a few days before fight night after Benn failed a drugs test.
Benn has since had his suspension lifted and is now cleared to fight in the United Kingdom. After their bout was finally confirmed earlier this year, the pair have traded barbs on multiple occasions. Eubank Jr sparked chaotic scenes at the launch press conference in Manchester in February after slapping Benn in the face with an egg – which led to their subsequent face-off being cancelled due to security concerns.
With a few days to go until their blockbuster showdown, Eubank Jr has continued to ramp up the trash talk. Benn is set to move up two weight classes to middleweight for the bout and while he still holds a perfect record, it’s Eubank Jr who has much more experience and will be the bigger man on fight night.
In an interview with The Ring ahead of the fight, Eubank Jr needed just one brutal word to describe his long-time rival. “He’s unproven”, he said. “We don’t know what he’s capable of. Sometimes that makes it harder because these guys don’t know how to lose. They don’t have that in their heart. But even though I have losses, I still don’t know how to lose, either.”
Many feel as if Eubank Jr, 35, is approaching the latter stages of his career. While he is yet to win a world title, the Brit has been involved in several high-profile fights, earning life-changing paydays in the process. There are a few who may question whether his heart will still be in the sport after Saturday night.
“I think to be able to do the things I’ve done,” he said. “To be able to have stayed in the sport for the length of time that I have and stayed in the sport responsibly, not just for money or because you’ve got nothing else to do…you have to love it.
“There’s so much hardship and torment that you have to go through, that when you come home after a hard day’s graft in the gym, getting beat up in sparring, and you’ve got an injury and you’re sick, you think, you know what? I’m not going to go to the gym tomorrow. Screw it. I’m going to do something else.
“You can never make it in an industry that’s so cruel and tough unless you genuinely love doing what you do. But what I don’t like…[Benn] was preparing to fight me and was taking performance-enhancing drugs. I’m not going to give him that power over me to say that I hate him. But to me, he’s a lowlife and somebody that doesn’t deserve to be in the position he’s in, somebody that I’m going to try my best to squeeze out of the sport.”
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