Eddie Hearn may soon have another legal battle on his hands.
The British boxing promoter, who recently settled lawsuits against Jake Paul and Ben Shalom’s BOXXER, has declared public intentions to sue Chris Eubank Jr. after the middleweight boxer made serious allegations against Hearn and Matchroom Boxing on Wednesday morning at the launch press conference for the Eubank vs. Conor Benn rematch on Nov. 15 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
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“After the [first fight with Benn], due to severe dehydration, I’m put in an ambulance and I have to go to [the] hospital,” Eubank claimed. “I was so dehydrated, one of the toenails on my big toe fell off. I’m in the ambulance, and these scumbags [Hearn’s team] blocked that ambulance from leaving the stadium for 20 minutes. We were locked in for 20 minutes. I’m laying there in a gurney with an oxygen mask on, the car cannot move because they won’t open the gates to let us leave. If this [were] a serious injury that I had sustained, that 20 minutes could have been the difference between life and death.”
A furious Hearn repeatedly denied any involvement in the delay of the ambulance leaving the stadium and threatened to take legal action against Eubank for making false claims against him and his company.
Hearn told the DAZN stream after Wednesday’s press conference concluded that the accusations made by Eubank were “unforgettable” and that he would “deal with that.” The Matchroom chairman then went on to inform multiple outlets that he would be taking legal action against Eubank.
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It wouldn’t be the first lawsuit that has emerged out of a Eubank press conference. Almost exactly one year ago today, Eubank made allegations against promoter Frank Warren, accusing Warren of “lying and cheating his way through boxing for the last couple [of] decades.” Warren went on to sue Eubank for defamation, with the parties reaching an amicable settlement in May.
Hearn wasn’t Eubank’s only target at Wednesday’s launch press conference. The former IBO middleweight champion also launched a rant at the general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, Robert Smith, accusing him of colluding with Hearn’s Matchroom to make decisions that unfairly favored Benn.
“This is the big boss behind the scenes,” Eubank said. “The man with all the power, that controls everything that goes on in professional boxing inside the United Kingdom. This guy’s a big deal, he really is. Now, this idiot allowed a room full of media and cameramen into my private weigh-in the day before the [first Benn] fight. The time that it took to get these people out contributed to me missing the weight and getting fined $500,000. He let Conor Benn fight in gloves filled with horsehair, knowing it was a direct breach of the contract I had for this fight.”
Both Smith and Hearn contended that Eubank missed weight because he arrived an hour late for the weigh-in — contentions that were supported by reporters present at the official weigh-in. Eubank was subsequently fined $500,000 for his weight miss and fined an additional $14,000 for “misuse of social media” after he documented himself insinuating that he had used a sauna or equivalent to cut weight — a practice that is banned by the BBBofC.
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Eubank claimed that his contract for the April fight disallowed Benn to use gloves with horsehair in them, however Benn’s promoter, Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith, insisted that the stipulation was not in their contract. Both Eubank and Benn had contracts with Saudi Arabian company SELA for their first bout rather than directly with each other, as is common practice in boxing deals.
“On fight night,” Eubank said Wednesday of Smith, “he personally escorted an arch nemesis of mine, Billy Joe Saunders, to my changing room to disrupt and try and disrupt my preparations for the biggest fight of my life.
“It’s viciously clear for me to see that this toad is nothing more than a puppet and a pawn. I think he is in the back pocket of Matchroom and Eddie Hearn. Unfortunately, just another scumbag.”
The BBBofC has yet to announce what sanctions it will impose on Eubank, but a heavy fine is likely to arise from the comments.
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