As Chris Eubank Jr. sunk to his knees Saturday on the blood-soaked canvas inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a wave of relief visibly washed over his bruised and disfigured face. After years of pain, the 35-year-old was the victor of his British blood-feud match with Conor Benn.
Identical 116-112 scorecards from all three judges kept the Eubanks unbeaten against the Benns in three fights spanning 35 years, and all four protagonists stood center-ring, displaying a wide spectrum of emotions.
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You’d be forgiven for calling this result a win for boxing. Benn’s two failed drugs tests for the female fertility drug clomiphene — and more importantly, his lack of explanation as to why — have marred this contest ever since the news broke back in 2022. But as is often the case, Saturday night proved that this sport, like no other, has the tendency to shine through even the murkiest of waters.
Like a hypnotist’s click, as soon as that first bell chimes, all is seemingly forgotten; for good or for ill, the slate is wiped clean. Perhaps that is why boxing remains an irresistible lure to the sports world’s shadiest characters and blood-sucking abusers.
After nostalgia-fueled ring walks, 36 minutes of battle ensued, Eubank and Benn trading leather at a relentless pace few imagined possible. Early momentum by the lighter, faster Benn was countered in the middle rounds by the power and accuracy of the heavier Eubank, until a crescendo of an eighth round prompted spontaneous applause to break out around the north London stadium.
As if to script, Benn fought like his father, Nigel, for the first time in 24 professional outings. He needed to. Wild swings missed but sharp combinations hit and Eubank got a taste of what his father, Chris Eubank Sr., had to overcome in the early 1990s.
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It was a fire-fight by definition. Guts, heart and determination trumped any over-reliance on skill or execution, and the experience of Eubank tolled in the 11th and 12th stanzas as he leaned on the younger man and emptied his tank. Both fighters were exhausted. And for the final few rounds, both fighters were one punch away from tasting the canvas.
As memorable as the 12 rounds of second-generation combat were, the moment of the night came after the eighth round of Liam Smith’s middleweight defeat to Aaron McKenna. Cameras cut to backstage and the appearance of Eubank Sr. out of a black car. Side-by-side with his father for the first time in more than a reported two years, Eubank Jr. struggled to mask a smile. The Benns tracked their arrival thanks to a television in their changing room — frozen to the spot, they watched as the family scales balanced.
To the cynic it could have come across as pantomime — a pro-wrestling bit. But grief is a funny thing.
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In 2021, Eubank Jr. lost his brother, Sebastian, to an unexpected heart attack in the Dubai sea. Eubank Sr. lost a son. Since then, Eubank Jr. has been candid in relaying his struggles and has done his best to describe the strain it has put on the Eubank family dynamic. The emotions they’ve wrestled with over the past four years, as fighting men, are inconceivable — Eubank Sr.’s anxiety not to see his son hurt has, of course, been heightened.
But this reuniting of father and son caused one of the biggest reactions of the evening. Out of such a vicious and unforgiving sport spawned a moment of beauty — one that countered the typical air of machismo and brought goosebumps alongside those from the north London chill.
Eubank Jr. looked at peace. Thirty-six hours after videos surfaced of his grueling weight cut to reach the agreed 160-pound limit, the Brighton fighter had flesh on his cheeks, color in his eyes, and walked without aid, chest out, through the stadium’s maze.
Chris Eubank Jr. and Chris Eubank Sr. walk out ahead of the middleweight bout against Conor Benn at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. (Bradley Collyer/PA Images via Getty Images)
(Bradley Collyer – PA Images via Getty Images)
He didn’t need his father there, but boy was he glad to see him.
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Cut to the post-fight interviews and Eubank Sr. explaining his decision: “That’s my son — I was always going to be here.” His eyes pierced with conviction, before he swanned off, gyrating around the ring with his typical eccentricity.
Benn’s promotor, Mathroom’s Eddie Hearn, announced his fighter as the “people’s champion” following the result, but the chorus of boos that greeted Hearn and Benn throughout the evening disagreed. Not many expected that performance from the previously unbeaten Benn. He deserves immense credit, but whether he has done his penance will be for future crowds to determine.
Instead, the Eubanks got their emotional Hollywood ending.
“I pushed through,” Eubank Jr. said. “There’s a lot of things that have been going on in my life that I’m not going to get into right now, but I’m happy to have my father back with me. We upheld the family name like we said we were going to do. Onwards and upwards from here.”
Eubank Jr.’s record will have another tick in the win column. His greatest victory on Saturday night, though, was being able to hold the hand of the man who made this whole spectacle possible.
