Chris Eubank Sr has had a complicated relationship with his son, Chris Eubank Jr, over the years, going from managing the boxing talent to barely speaking due to his upcoming fight with Conor Benn
Chris Eubank Sr will not be in his son’s corner as he heads into one of the biggest fights of his life with Conor Benn on Saturday.
Chris Eubank Jr is set to put a life-long rivalry to bed when he meets Benn at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday evening – a rivalry traced back to his father’s clashes with Benn’s dad, Nigel Benn. Eubank Sr and Nigel initially clashed in the squared circle in 1990, when Eubank Sr secured the WBO middleweight title via a ninth-round TKO.
A rematch three years later saw the two men fight to a draw, with a rubber match never arriving to give Nigel one last chance to get the better of his opponent. Now, more than three decades later, their sons are set to go toe-to-toe in what is being billed as one of the greatest British boxing matches ever.
However, Eubank Sr is completely opposed to the idea of his son, who is naturally a middleweight, taking on welterweight Benn at 160lbs, straining their familial relationship.
Eubank Sr’s relationship with his son
Eubank Sr played a huge part in his son’s boxing career during its early stages. He was seen side-by-side with Eubank Jr at press conferences, giving critical advice between rounds from his corner. However, he has not been seen coaching or managing his son since 2019.
Speaking to Mirror Fighting about how their professional relationship dwindled over the years, Eubank Jr said: “He doesn’t have a role, which is pretty crazy because for a huge part of my career he was a massive part of everything, the business side, the press conferences, the training… he was always there and now he’s not there for any of it.
“I had to make that transition, 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. At this moment in time, he’s having trouble separating the business and the boxing and the coaching from being just my dad.
“For so many reasons, that’s how he was my dad so when that’s not there, he doesn’t know what to do, that’s what he’s dealing with right now. 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.”
Meanwhile, Eubank Jr said that the death of his brother, Sebastian, also caused a rift between himself and his father. Sebastian died at the age of just 29 in Dubai in 2021 after suffering a heart attack, and Eubank Jr said that it had “destroyed a large part” of the relationship.
Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, he said: “You have the situation with my brother passing away. 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.” Since the interview, however, it is said that Eubank Sr and his son have since met and begun repairing their relationship.
Eubank Sr cost his son £3m
Eddie Hearn said that Eubank Sr’s demands cost his son a £3million fight with Gennady Golovkin in 2016, with the middleweight No. 1 instead defending his collection of WBC, IBF and WBA belts against Kell Brook. The Kazakhstani pugilist had agreed terms to face Eubank Jr at the time, but ‘Next Gen’ stalled on signing the contract, before the fight was instead offered to Brook – who went on to lose the fight via a fifth-round TKO.
Hearn blamed Eubank Sr for the debacle due to reported demands on which television commentator would work on the fight and how much tickets to the event would cost. The Matchroom Boxing head said: “I believe Eubank Jr genuinely wanted the fight, and we worked solidly for three weeks trying to make the fight.
“We had several meetings and contracts went back and forth. We sent them a final contract on Tuesday and said you have 24 hours and they never came back to us. We just ran out of time, so I offered it to Kell. The deal that Kell Brook is on is the same as what Eubank Jr was offered, it’s the same pay-per-view deal as Anthony Joshua is getting and what Carl Froch got.
“It was so frustrating. It was the crazy demands that meant the fight could not happen for Eubank Jr against Golovkin. 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.
“They wanted full operational control of the promotion. They were even asking things from Sky Sports like, ‘We want these commentators’, which is ridiculous. 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. They have to understand that it’s not playing a game.
“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.”
Eubank Sr goes bankrupt
After enjoying an illustrious boxing career of his own, winning multiple world championships, Eubank Sr fell into the trap of spending frivolously to the point of bankruptcy. Speaking to Morgan on his Life Stories show in 2021, the pugilist explained that he splurged on expensive clothes, paid over the top prices for haircuts, bought a Lord of the Manor title for £45,000, and splashed out on a swanky £4m mock Tudor home in Hove, East Sussex.
His lifestyle eventually saw him file for bankruptcy in 2009, and left him sleeping in a truck; however, keen to learn from his mistakes, he saw this as a “good thing”, which had taught him a “lesson”.
A third wife
Eubank Sr and his first wife, Karron, married in December 1990 in Brighton, welcoming four children: Chris Jr, Sebastian, Emily, and Joseph. Eubank also has an elder son, Nathaniel Wilson, from a previous relationship. In August 2005, Karron and Eubank Sr divorced.
In 2014, Eubank married once more, this time to manager Claire Geary. Their matrimony lasted just three years before a separation in 2017. During his conversation on Morgan’s Life Stories, Eubank Sr announced that he had married for a third time, but wanted to keep his American wife out of the spotlight.
Morgan probed Eubank Sr: “You’ve got married again to a lady in Louisiana, you haven’t really talked much about that,” before the former boxer replied: “No, she’s not a public figure. She doesn’t want to be a public figure.” He also added that they were “extremely happy” at the time.
It is unknown if Eubank Sr is still married to the woman, who remains unknown, given that he has kept his personal affairs largely out of the spotlight.
Eubank Sr against his son’s match with Conor Benn
Fast forward to April 2025, and Eubank Sr is completely opposed to his son’s upcoming fight with Benn due to weight differences between the two pugilists. Benn, who has spent the majority of his career at 147lbs will move up to meet Eubank Jr’s middleweight limit of 160lbs.
And while a hydration clause has been inserted into the contract to prevent either fighter adding 10lbs to their weight before fight night, Eubank Sr has insisted that the bout is “against the rules”. He told Seconds Out: “It’s against the rules what is happening, 147lbs fighting 160lbs is against the rules.
“When Kell Brook was made to fight GGG [Gennady Golovkin] it’s against the rules. That boy [Brook] had his eye socket smashed. For promoters, it is just a game, but to the warriors, it is a way of life.
“We have to call them what they are, they are trash, they are trashing us. We are not trash, we are the standard bearers… if you are not clever and you are not noble, this [boxing] will kill you, this vocation, what they call sport. If you don’t play it right already, Conor, you don’t have a career to enjoy.”
Eubank Sr was also left disgusted by his son when he smashed an egg into Benn’s face during a tense face-off for the bout back in February, adding: “Junior, you are smashing an egg against this guy’s face. I taught you that? I didn’t teach you that?
“Who taught you that? Did Karron [Eubank Jr’s mum] teach you that? Who taught you that? That is disgraceful. That is disgraceful. I’m going to be in your corner? I would never have been in your corner. That is a disgrace.
“You are smashing an egg in someone’s face, and you are trying to justify it. There is no justification for it. There is nothing noble about that.” While Nigel Benn has been with his son every step of the way headed into the action, it is understood that Eubank Sr will not be in attendance to watch his son in action.