IF Chris Eubank Jr is “Insta-famous,” as George Groves describes it, it’s due to the training footage he puts out on social media. These clips show him hammering bags, blasting out rapid combinations of punches and are, he says, an accurate reflection of how he trains.
Eubank explains, “I always train usually boxing is always middle of the day, two or three o’clock, sometimes a little bit earlier. I spar a lot. I spar as much as I can, which is tough because people don’t want to spar me. It’s tough to get sparring partners down.
“We do what we must, especially for a fight coming up. You have to spar. Outside of that, it’s every day graft. Running, I’m running the hills, I’m running Brighton beach. My strength and conditioning classes. I tried a bit of Bikram Yoga at one point. But I had to stop that since I moved up to super-middleweight because you’re losing a lot of weight, you’re sweating in that heat, which is counter-productive to someone who’s trying to gain weight. It’s a life style.”
He has a coach, Ronnie Davies, and guidance from his father, Chris Eubank Sr, but insists he is in control of his training set up, an unorthodox arrangement in boxing. But Junior argues, “I know what I’m doing now. I’m at the stage now where I’ve been there, I’ve done it. So the input, the instruction, it’s still there but they know I’ve got things under control… You can [do it] because I do and I am where I am.
“I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for so long, why would I change now?”
In fact he queries Groves’ approach. Referring toShane McGuigan, Groves’ trainer, Eubank said, “He has chosen to entrust his preparation and his fitness to a man who has been with him for two or three fights. Extremely irresponsible in my opinion. He uses language like ‘we’. We’re going to do this, we’re going to do that. Shane’s going to get me ready. That is ignorant in my opinion. If I lose, I lost because of I made a mistake. When I win, I won because I did everything right. I think George is using the word we because when he loses he has someone to push that blame on. The camp didn’t go right, Shane didn’t do this, our nutritionist didn’t do that.
“I take responsibility for my actions. I’m not leaving the most important fight of my life, I’m not giving anyone else that responsibility, I’m not putting it anybody’s hands but my own.”
