Moments before the first bell rings through Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, sometime after 10.30pm in the English capital, Conor Benn will scowl at Chris Eubank Jr. Over Benn’s shoulder will be his father Nigel, once a devil in the ring, now his son’s guardian angel. Across the canvas, Eubank Jr may glare back at the younger Benn, or he might opt for a smirk. He knows, after all, how to wind up his rival. But in Eubank Jr’s corner, the picture will be incomplete.
Eubank Sr will not be there to support his son. Not in a fight like this, one simply branded a “disgrace” by the usually loquacious Sr.
More than 30 years after Nigel and Sr completed their in-ring rivalry – battling to a draw at Old Trafford in 1993, after Sr stopped his fellow Briton in 1990 – the sins of the fathers seep into the sons. When Jr and Conor were paired in late 2022, prior to the revelation of the latter’s adverse drug-test results and subsequent British ban, this rivalry felt somewhat contrived.
It was built on the fathers’ pasts, and the weight proved an awkward element. The latter is still true, with the unbeaten Benn, 28, moving up to middleweight to face Jr, 35. But their grudge is real. Just look at Benn’s face any time he discusses Jr, or the way it was splattered with raw egg in February, when Jr slapped him after a press conference.
Yet for Sr, who guided Jr during the early years of his professional career before a professional break-up, this match-up is a slap of its own. “It’s a slap in Michael’s face,” the British legend tearfully told iFL TV last week, referring to his old opponent Michael Watson. Sr was speaking before Watson’s mile-long walk with Peter Hamlyn, the neurosurgeon who saved the boxer’s life after a beating by Sr in 1991.
Sr labelled the fight “nonsense” and a “circus”, adding: “The smaller guy in Conor Benn has had his career destroyed for one fight. My son coming down from 168lb to 160lb puts his life in danger. My son is having to boil himself down to 160lb. Three years ago, they were talking about him coming down 157lb. This is daylight murder, and when I say murder, you say that’s a bit too strong. Yes, my brother [boxer Simon Eubank] died at the hands of the promoters – 20 losses and 27 fights, being brought in as fodder. I’m speaking from experience, it’s real for me. My brother died, frontal lobe dementia.
“We have to protect the fighters, and the biggest example of this is Michael Watson […] This is a disgrace, and if you don’t think this is a disgrace, fight me. I said it, and you all need to say it. We can’t run amok, we are not a country of baboons.”
But what of Jr’s decision to engage in all this? “He won’t listen to me,” Sr said. “He is looking at all the money. What does the dad do if the son won’t listen? Then the dad has to come and speak to the public directly.”
This came after Sr admonished his son for the ‘egg slap’ heard around the boxing world, asking: “Where did that come from?”He told The Ring: “I was extremely disappointed by the incident at the press conference, [and] his choice to use profanity. Such behaviour does not reflect the conduct I have instilled in him. The Eubank legacy is built on discipline, respect, and professionalism, and this incident falls short of those values. Jr has been taught that the warrior’s path is one of honour and integrity. Such actions that he chose to take at the press conference undermine the very essence of what it means to be a warrior.”
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At the time of these particular comments, however, Sr stressed: “No matter what has happened, I will always have Jr’s back.”
Yet that seemingly won’t be the case on Saturday. So, how did it come to this? It is worth noting that the father and son had their differences before Jr vs Benn was signed in 2022; Sr was last seen in his son’s corner in 2019.
Explaining the origin of their rift, Jr told Piers Morgan in March: “[Conor is] different. His father kind of let him do his own thing and jump in and sink or swim. My old man was always next to me, and it got to a stage where I decided that I needed to walk my own path. He was not happy with that decision. That’s the start of it.
“Then you have the situation with my brother passing away,” Jr continued, referencing Sebastian’s death at the age of 29 in 2021. “That affected him in a deep way – it affected all of us. Mental health is a real thing. That incident, coupled with the fact that we were already not seeing eye to eye, destroyed a large part of the relationship. And it still doesn’t seem to have recovered.
“Of course [I’ve reached out]. No, no he hasn’t [rebuffed me]. I still hope he’s there on the night, just like [Benn’s] old man will be. I honestly don’t know. I hope and I pray that he is, and I will do things to try and get him there. But if he isn’t, guess what? I’m still gonna go out there and do the job. He needs to be able to get over whatever demons he’s fighting. Now, this fight is either gonna enable him to get over those demons or unfortunately it’s gonna make those demons grow. I don’t know.”
It seems this fight has made those demons grow, after all.
And Jr might suggest they have been growing in size and ferocity for some time. In October, he told Ariel Helwani: “I would love for him to be involved. The fact that I even have to say that is insane. How is that even a thing? His son is gonna fight the son of his arch-nemesis, [from] all those years ago when he was a world champion… How is it a thing that he may not be there?
“We don’t talk, he has shown no interest in my career for a long period of time now. He’s shown no interest in me in a long period of time. As somebody who’s lost a son, I think that’s a pretty insane thing [for my dad] to be doing, an insane way to be acting – to kind of not be speaking to your remaining kids. You know what? For a long time, I tried to kind of act like it was cool. People would ask me, ‘How’s your dad?’ ‘Yeah, we’re good.’ But I got sick of that s***, man. It’s bulls***. We’re not cool, we’re not okay, and people need to know.”
Now the people know. They know the sad truth behind what should be the greatest moment of Eubank Jr’s career.
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