CHRIS EUBANK, like his choice of coffee, is complicated. He puts a sugar into his double espresso macchiato with skinny milk, stirs it briefly and struts the Eubank strut towards the back of a sunny Brighton cafรฉ. โItโs so frustrating to be me,โ he says in reference to being perennially misunderstood, and places his impressive 50-year-old frame into a chair. โBut itโs great, I love it.โ
That sense of self-worth, the faith he has in his opinions and values, has always been an admirable quality, even when those opinions and values are lost on many who hear them. Eubank operates with a level of self-belief that is alien in a largely insecure world; confidence so unrelenting itโs been both a blessing and a curse. Two decades ago it drove Eubank from relative obscurity to two WBO world titles, and a level of fame that is still keenly felt. Today, despite accusations to the contrary, he promises it will guide his sonโs boxing career to even greater heights than his own.
That I should be in that same Brighton cafรฉ, writing the report from the previous nightโs Gennady Golovkin-Kell Brook contest when Eubank enters is a complete and curious coincidence. After all, it should have been Chris Eubank Jnr challenging middleweight king Golovkin at the O2 Arena. That bout was there for the taking until negotiations stalled long enough for Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn to offer the contest to the undersized Brook at the 11th hour. Weeks of silence from Team Eubank followed, and with them, a Boxing News front cover sporting Eubank Jnrโs image and the accompanying headline, โRudderlessโ. The connotations of which did not pass unnoticed.
โYou are the editor of Boxing News. How do you put on the front cover โRudderlessโ?โ he asks, hanging on the word rudderless. โThere is nothing โrudderlessโ about me, and what Iโm doing with Junior. I have built Junior into a fighter, not a celebrity, not a talker, very well mannered, very much on course.โ
But the failure to agree terms for the Golovkin showdown, a contest the Eubanks first called for over two years ago, led us to suggest the exciting middleweightโs career had hit a sizeable bump in the road, an obstacle of their own making. Eubank accepts why it looked that way, yet claims he was told he would have total control over the show, and he sent his lawyers to the negotiating table with that control in mind. Eubank โ who promises he was not present during negotiations โ did not know the contest had broken down until it was too late.
โMy lawyers said they [Matchroom] were playing the same old games,โ Eubank says. โWe have to have control of the fight. I said to Barry Hearn afterwards, โIf you had told me it wasnโt our show, then I would have compliedโ. But he told me it was our show. They said that the undercard would be so much. I was saying it was over-inflated. We have to have the right to at least sign off. So we donโt own the show, and thatโs why it fell down. When they give us a five oโclock deadline, thatโs the same thing that other promoters do. It doesnโt mean anything. We didnโt know they had Kell Brook as a backup, and he wasnโt a backup. He was never a backup, but now theyโve got the business out of it. Boxing doesnโt need that. Itโs a shambles.โ
Weeks after the Golovkin contest crumbled, Matchroomโs rival promoter Frank Warren won the purse bids to stage Eubank Jnrโs mandated British title defence against Tommy Langford. The bout โ barely even a consolation prize when compared to the riches of sharing a ring with โGGGโ โ was set to appear in Cardiff on October 22. Eddie Hearn was almost lost for words with the switch, and similarly Warren speaks of his exasperation with Eubank Snr. The feeling is not reciprocated; Eubank is aware he drives Warren round the twist, yet has fondness โ of sorts โ for the promoter.
โI admire him, do you know why?โ Eubank says of Warren. โHe is the only promoter on earth who would punch me in the face. And he would. Iโm non-violent. I remember being in a restaurant [three years ago], and I said โFrank, donโt hit me. I canโt retaliate, Iโm a man of peace, Iโm my own man.โ Frank is proper old school, they donโt make them like him, he is solid, he is genuine. A genuine what? Iโm not going to say that, but he is genuine, he is real. He doesnโt know it should be any other way. He doesnโt understand that it should be fairer, that is why I admire him. Everything he says about me, I sometimes wonder how he can give me so much credit. I donโt know how this man can speak so glowingly about me. He doesnโt understand the more mean his projection of me is, the bigger he makes me. He doesnโt get it.โ
One senses the condescending nature of Eubankโs patter is not designed to annoy. Several times during our conversation there seems to be a presumption on his part that I couldnโt possibly be keeping up. And any advice from the likes of Boxing News, or anyone else for that matter, is certainly not welcome: โAnyone who tells me to step back doesnโt know what theyโre talking about. This is his [Juniorโs] career. I am part of his career. I havenโt been at every fight, paid and supported him to now step back because you donโt like my demeanour, because I have what they refer to as โswagโ. You donโt like it? Donโt look at my swag. Itโs my swag that made me do the things I was able to do, that actually again was a foundation in boxing.โ
Two weeks later, news breaks that Junior is injured, and will relinquish his British title. The Langford bout is off. Amid the chaos are accusations that Eubank Snr simply does not have faith in his son. But that does not seem to be the case; Senior is ferociously proud of Junior, and would confidently send him into battle with any middleweight in the world (if the terms and conditions were right, of course). It is not fighters that Eubank is protecting his son from, it is those who make the fights.
โEddie Hearn, Frank Warren, Barry Hearn, theyโre promoters, they have a business. Everything that is coming from them is understandable to me,โ Eubank insists. โThey are protecting their businesses, because I am one of those guys who knows how to do it, I have seen, I have felt, and I remember what they did to me [although Frank Warren never managed Eubank]. Who is better positioned to steer my son? Itโs tough. He is having a tough time for one reason, and one reason only, which is a position in which he sits: He is a free agent, and that takes some doing. I would like all those who are not in the know to congratulate me, because it is a gargantuan task to keep him free, to keep his rights to himself. Thatโs why I am so difficult. They use every which way to tie you down, and use the energy of the fighter. Juniorโs energy is to be used in terms of himself, and for the public to enjoy.โ
Surely, though, there must be some regret, or disappointment at least, that the Golovkin contest failed to materialise?
โNo. Thatโs boxing. I deal with boxing like I deal with travel, when youโre flying overseas. I hope for the best but I am prepared for the worst. I never travel badly because I always expect delays, I always expect something to go wrong, but generally everything goes right. I am never disappointed. Boxing is a process, itโs a game of movement, it is never static and your career is based on the decisions you make when opportunities come your way. The reason Iโm not disappointed about Junior not getting that fight โ and in my view he would have wasted him [Golovkin], he had no jab, you canโt do that with Junior. Anyway, another story. The reason Iโm not disappointed is because the monies that we were promised, which was ยฃ6m, Junior shouldnโt be earning that money yet. He is being built. In another two fights heโs ready for that money. I said in the past that if the Golovkin fight comes up when I was asking Eddie to make that fight, then I would have to advise my son to relinquish the British title and take that fight. But in reality heโs still in his apprenticeship. He shouldnโt be earning that money yet. Remember, he is being managed. He isnโt managing himself, which is why he is in [the] perfect situโฆ I have seen nothing like him in the last 25 years. You tell me when you have seen someone so vicious, who is so ferocious, so cruel, so much theatre, so much presence? I havenโt seen it. He is real.โ
Senior is certain that reality will ultimately prevail. And that one day, his vision for his son will generate only praise because to his mind, it is all going to plan.
โI am looking out for my boy because in 10, 15, 20, 30 years, my boy is going to say โdad, youโre some man.โ No one has done this,โ Eubank exclaims.
โYou [promoters] can seduce someone when theyโve never been seduced before. But Iโve been seduced before, and youโre not doing it to mine. So I am to do everything I should do for my fighter. If you donโt like that term, you can use the word parent, because as a parent I will do everything for my son. I am not afraid of ยฃ3m or ยฃ6m, because I made ยฃ35m from the sport. I am not afraid of those numbers. Junior will earn so much more by me doing what Iโm doing. So โRudderlessโ is so far from the point. I have been all the way through this. The promoters talk of me as difficult because they canโt have their own way. Iโm not difficult, Iโm a lovely guy, itโs plain to see.โ
This article was orginally published in Boxing News magazine