AS Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr face up in the ring tomorrow at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, not even the screaming crowds and bright lights will be able to hide a very conspicuous absence.
While Benn will have his dad Nigel backing him up in his corner, Chris Eubank Sr will be nowhere to be seen – despite this fight opening another chapter in a more than three-decade-old Eubank-Benn rivalry.
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Chris Eubank Sr has branded the fight a “disgrace” and accused his son of “making a mockery” of the family legacy – even calling for his boxing licence to be revoked after the younger Eubank cracked an egg over Benn’s face in a February press conference.
But while the build-up to Saturday’s fight has exacerbated the rift, the fallout is nothing new – dating back to 2019.
In recent years their fractured relationship has been overshadowed by the tragic death of two members of the family, while promoter Eddie Hearn even claimed Eubank Sr cost his son millions.
Ahead of the showdown, 35-year-old Eubank Jr has faced an uphill battle to shed enough weight, with Benn poking fun at the “pain” his rival had been experiencing at a press conference on Thursday.
“What is pain, though?” Eubank Jr hit back.
“I have a 31-year old brother who is buried in the desert in Dubai, that is pain. I have a son, three years old, he asks why can’t I see my daddy? Why can’t he take me to school? That is pain.
“My own father, a man I idolised for my entire life, and he doesn’t speak to me. We haven’t spoken in years and he thinks I’m a disgrace.
“These things are what pain is to me.”
For years, Chris Eubank Jr. could count on his dad’s support as he rose up to establish himself as a fighter in his own right.
The father and son pair would often be sat side by side at press conferences, with Eubank Sr. helping to coach and manage his son’s career, and providing Eubank Jr. with critical feedback in between rounds.
But this close relationship would eventually come to an end, with a professional – and personal – break-up that left the younger Eubank heartbroken.
“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,” he said in October.
“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.”
Fighting demons
Eubank Jr added that he still wishes his father will have a change of heart and be there the night of the fight.
“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?” he says.
“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?”
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Doubling down on these feelings in March, he told Piers Morgan: “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.
“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.”
Conor’s father Nigel also urged Eubank Sr to attend, telling the BBC: “I don’t want him having a disagreement with his son.
“We all want you there, so we can see each other after the fight and hug each other and say it is all over – so be there my friend.”
Eubank Sr. hasn’t been seen in his son’s corner since 2019, and given their recent comments, it doesn’t seem like their relationship will be healing any time soon.
By this time, Eubank Jr felt ready to start taking more control over his career – rather than simply becoming another version of his dad.
But his father did not take this move well.
“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,” Eubank Jr told Morgan.
I think it’s going to take me being out of boxing for him to come back into my life
Eubank Jr
“I had to step out of that cycle because I felt it wasn’t working, and as my own man, I had learned enough and had done enough in the game to do my own thing, to walk my own path and not follow someone else,” he told the Mirror.
Tragically, Eubank Jr added that he’d have to ditch his love of boxing to rebuild any relationship with the man who had given him so much.
“At this moment in time, he’s having trouble separating the business and the boxing and the coaching from being just my dad.
“I think it’s going to take me being out of boxing for him to come back into my life. I hope that’s not the case, but that’s how I see it.
“I’m very appreciative of everything he did and everything he taught me throughout my life and my career, but I want to be my own man, and that’s what I’m doing now.”
Family pain
However, their gap only widened after a pair of tragic deaths within the family.
Much of Eubank Sr’s fury has been directed at the fact that his son is having to shed so much weight, fearing that boiling down to the 160lb needed will risk needless damage – akin to what left Eubank Sr’s own brother paying the ultimate price.
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“I don’t want my son getting down to 160lb. And that is why I have spoken about people trying to murder my boy by boiling him down to 157lb,” Eubank Sr told The Sun while choking back tears.
“Trying to boil my son down to 157lb a few years ago, would have killed him. You might think the word ‘killed’ is a bit strong but my brother is dead from boxing. He lost his life from boxing, with frontal lobe dementia.
“In the end, Harlem was feeding him with a baby bottle, he had to feed his own father. I didn’t have the strength to go and see my brother in the last six months of his life because he was locked in spasm all of the time he was awake,” he added.
“That is boxing and 20 losses at the hands of the promoters. It’s a business and a racket and when you keep bringing the same guy in to lose, he ends up being killed.
“He was my brother. It is real for us.”
Chris Eubank Jr hasn’t made one decision, he doesn’t breathe without his dad’s say so
Eddie Hearn
Eubank Sr’s brother, Simon, passed away aged 61 in September 2023 after a harrowing battle with dementia, believed to have been brought on by injuries sustained in the ring.
In response, Eubank Jr’s promoter Ben Shalon agreed that trying to reach 157lb was “crazy”.
“It was irresponsible for everyone involved that we asked Chris Eubank Jr to get 157. [It was] absolutely crazy that that was ever agreed to but we’re here now. He’ll make the weight and he’ll be ready to go,” he added, in reference to Saturday’s fight.
Tragically, Eubank Jr also lost his brother, Sebastian, after the 29-year old passed away from a heart attack in Dubai in 2021.
“That affected [my dad] in a deep way – it affected all of us,” he told Piers Morgan.
“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.”
‘Crazy’ demands
But the cost of the animosity has been financial as well as emotion, according to promoter Eddie Hearn, which may have driven the younger Eubank’s decision to step out of his dad’s shadow.
In 2016, Eubank Jr was being lined up for a £3million bout against WBC, IBF, and WBA belt-holder Gennady Golovkin.
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But Hearn said that the deal fell apart after Eubank Sr made “crazy” demands that could not be met over things like the choice of television commentator and ticket prices.
“I believe Eubank Jr genuinely wanted the fight, and we worked solidly for three weeks trying to make the fight,” the Matchroom boss said.
“They wanted full operational control of the promotion. They were even asking things from Sky Sports like, ‘We want these commentators’, which is ridiculous.”
He added: “I feel for Eubank Jr because I don’t think he knows what’s going on and he was going to earn three or five million pounds.
“Chris Eubank Jr hasn’t made one decision, he doesn’t breathe without his dad’s say so. All the negotiations were done with Chris Eubank Sr and the lawyer.”
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“They think it’s negotiations but it’s not a bluff when I say it’s 24 hours to sign the contract. They were given a deadline and they chose not to take the fight.”
For Eubank Jr, the fallout with his father was something he long tried to hide – half out of embarrassment, half out of denial.
But in tomorrow’s fight, he’ll be hoping to make his father proud and carry on the family legacy, even if he’s not there to watch.
“I tried to kind of act like it was cool. People would ask me, ‘How’s your dad?’ ‘Yeah, we’re good’,” Eubank said to Piers Morgan.
“But I got sick of that s***, man. It’s bulls***.
“We’re not cool, we’re not OK, and people need to know.”