Chris Eubank Jr has insisted a defeat against Conor Benn would ‘ruin’ him and that he’ll call it a day should he fail to get the job done on fight night.
Both men are in the final stages of their respective training camps ahead of their blockbuster dust-up – which is scheduled to take place this Saturday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. The pair have been thrown into a family feud after their fathers’ famous fights in 1990 and 1993.
There is real bad blood between each other and both have vowed to put on a show on fight night. Benn has explained how he’ll go back down to natural weight class after the dust-up. However, there’s so much more on the line for Eubank Jr – who has stated he’ll quit the sport with a defeat against ‘The Destroyer.’
In a pre-fight documentary uploaded to Boxxer’s official YouTube channel, Eubank Jr opened up on the fight and how a loss will completely affect his future. “Everything is riding on this fight. This is the biggest fight of my career. The most amount of money, the most amount of pressure, the most amount of everything,” he said.
“Everything is riding on this. A loss… it would finish me, it would ruin me mentally, emotionally, spiritually. A defeat would be devastating because not only the beef between me and Conor real, and something I wouldn’t be able to stand the defeat of on a personal level. I have to uphold my father’s legacy. Letting him down would probably hurt even more.”
As well as revealing a defeat would ‘ruin’ him, the 35-year-old has also explained that his family name is on the line. Eubank Sr won the first meeting against Benn via knockout in 1990 – but the pair would go on to fight to a stunning draw three years later. “It’s a massive risk,” Eubank Jr continued.
“For me because everything is on the line. My reputation, my credibility, my family name, my career. I’ve said, ‘if I lose to Conor Benn, I retire.’ That is a harrowing thought to know that if I don’t pull this off, if I don’t do what I’m supposed to do on April 27th… there’s no more boxing which is all I’ve done since I was 14-years-old.”
In separate 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.”
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