Eubank Jnr: I’m not in boxing to make friends
AS CHRIS EUBANK JNR knows, boxing is a sport full of contradictions.
The 28-year-old is less than a week away from the biggest fight of his life, a World Boxing Super Series semi-final against George Groves.
When the first bell rings in Manchester on Saturday, he and his opponent will be the epicentre of a packed arena but more lonely than ever before. And now, at a time when all cameras point in his direction, Eubank Jnr remains an outsider.
The build-up to this domestic dust-up has been dominated, perhaps unsurprisingly, by comments made by Eubank’s father. The former world champion has been accused of trying to influence the referee by claiming Groves needs protecting from the ferocity of his son’s arsenal. Given all three have left opponents with brain injuries during their respective careers, the remarks have grated with many, not least Groves who labelled the 51-yearold ‘classless’.
Carl Frampton, a former stablemate of Groves, said Snr was setting his son ‘up for a big fall’, while Tyson Fury labelled him a ‘disgrace’. The Eubanks never were a family likely to win many popularity contests. Not that Jnr seems to care.
‘I’m not a madman. If I had to choose, obviously I would pick people to like me,’ he says.
‘But it’s not a big concern for me. Some people really want to be loved or they really want people to like them and support them. I don’t have that need, maybe because I’m so used to doing things on my own.’
It’s true — in boxing, the 28-year-old lives a solitary existence. As Groves has pointed out, Eubank (right) doesn’t have a trainer (‘I’m not putting this in the hands of anybody but myself’). Nor is he part of a stable of fighters, while his entourage is almost non-existent.
Eubank’s list of friends in boxing is even shorter: ‘Ronnie Davies’ — the man who trained his father. ‘I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to win fights. I’m not here to be part of a clique or a group,’ he says. ‘Outside the boxing world, I’m a cool guy, I have fun, hang out. Inside the boxing community, it’s all business.’
Eubank Jnr, however, is in no doubt about the benefits of his father’s presence. ‘I know my dad would never backstab me, he would never do anything that would affect me in a negative way like so many other fighters have had done to them by people who they trusted,’ he says.
Under the bright lights on Saturday, Eubank will have no one — not even his father — to lean on. But that’s just the way he likes it.
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