MYSTERIOUS CASE OF EUBANK JNR’S OVEN-READY DEAL

THERE are icons, images and artefacts that, over time, come to define a sport’s place in time. Could anything better symbolise the blurred lines that once separated boxing and showbusiness than all four Beatles on the end of Muhammad Ali’s right hand? Is it any wonder the Greatest’s sweat is soaked into some of the sport’s most valuable memorabilia? Back in 2014, the gloves from Ali’s first heavyweight title fight fetched more than £600,000 at auction. Now for the fight to embody this era. Will history be written by a star of the sport’s YouTube invasion, or by a fading hero flirting with danger one final time? Or perhaps the enduring relic of this bonkers generation will be used to reheat cold tea and leftover curry. For the uninitiated: last Saturday, Chris Eubank Jnr returned to the ring in Newcastle. During fight week, the 32-year-old was approached by fans. Some asked for selfies; one asked Eubank to sign a microwave. The fighter obliged. All fun and games until this Thursday when Eubank revealed the microwave was now on eBay. The middleweight agreed to match the winning bid ‘and give the money to a charity of (their) choice’. That sparked a war to break any gavel. Within a few hours, the signed appliance was approaching £66,000 (plus £30 postage, of course). ‘Well that escalated quickly,’ Eubank wrote. And then, yesterday morning, another twist in the tale. The microwave disappeared. The link was broken and suddenly a heartwarming — if peculiar — story took a rather mysterious turn. Sportsmail, Eubank Jnr and eBay all sought to investigate why. But really this called for fight sports’ most unlikely sage. It seems Dominic Cummings has taken a break from bashing his former employer to become an advisor to Mixed Martial Artists. This week, Cummings tweeted Nate Diaz, suggesting he build a trilogy fight with Conor McGregor from outside the UFC. It wasn’t lost on Cummings’ followers that the mastermind of Brexit was again advocating someone leave to take (back) control.