Chris Eubank Jr: “To be the good guy? That dream left a long time ago”

“Everything is on the line,” says Chris Eubank Jr of his upcoming blockbuster fight against Conor Benn. “The legacy, the history, the respect, the pride, the family names.”

It’s the final element that has helped make Eubank Jr vs Benn a blockbuster event, more than 30 years after their fathers fought for the second and final time. However the second-generation showdown carries its own animosity after Benn’s failed drugs test forced the late cancellation of a fight initially scheduled for 2022. “Things are too personal now,” says Eubank Jr. “He had the best shot at beating me the first time around. I really was taking him lightly.”

For years, Eubank Jr has been the bad guy of British boxing: booed into every arena, feuding with promoters and unapologetically marching to his own tune. He is a complex, enigmatic figure, more self-aware than his detractors will credit, clear-eyed about the brutal nature of his sport and his place within it. Now 35, Eubank Jr is far removed from the glowering persona he adopted at the start of his career. “It wasn't an act,” he says. “It wasn't me trying to be tough, I just didn't have it in my spirit to be happy, go lucky, fun.”

The tragic death of his brother Sebastian in 2021 changed Eubank Jr forever. How could it not? He has become a devoted protector to his young nephew Raheem, only a few months old when Sebastian passed. “Now I'm in a position where I have this kid. The things that I thought gave me happiness before? No club, no amount of money, no cars, no girls, none of that compares to the happiness I get from spending time with Raheem.” He’s smiling at the thought.

We meet in a central London hotel on the Thames, Eubank’s customised McLaren parked out front. Over 40 minutes we cover everything from the boos that have soundtracked his career to his now-fraught relationship with his father to Raheem’s remarkable impact on his life. We discuss his journey through the sport and what may lie ahead in his future, inside and outside the ring. As always, he proves fascinating company, a law unto himself.

SM: Your first Square Mile cover was 2018. How have you changed since then?

CEJ: A lot's changed. I've grown as a man and I've changed as a human being. As you get older, you live, you go through things, you understand what works and what doesn't work in life. You learn from your mistakes and you level up and that's what I've been doing for the last seven years. Now I have a very different mindset.

When I was doing that first interview with you, I was in a different place in my life. I still had everything to prove at that moment in time. There were still a lot of unanswered questions about what I was capable of doing, how far I could really go. And now I'm at the top. Now I am proven, now I'm a grizzled veteran in the sport of boxing. I've had all the life experiences. I've achieved so much of what I wanted to achieve – inside of boxing and outside of boxing. Especially outside of boxing, my life is completely different.

SM: What’s surprised you most about your career to date?

CEJ: What surprised me? I always knew if I grafted and stayed on task and never strayed from the mission that I would get to where I wanted to go in terms of being a successful fighter.The successes I've had, money I've made, the person I've become, I wouldn't say it's been a surprise because I dedicated my life to this sport and those are the rewards that you get when you sacrifice. I guess being the bad guy, being seen as a villain for so many years, being booed into every single British fight I've had since 2014 – that aspect of my career surprised me. Especially when it first started happening.

SM: Was that the Billy Joe Saunders fight?

CEJ: The Saunders fight was the first time I ever got booed. At the time I thought it was a one off. I'm in the wrong town, I've got the wrong crowd. Surely next time, as long as I do my best and never give up and stay true to who I am, then the next time I'll get cheered. It never happened. Eleven years later I've still never been cheered into an arena in Britain.

SM: Did it bother you?

CEJ: Oh yeah, for sure. The first time it happened, it was a soul-crushing, dark, lonely movement. In any fighter’s life when you enter an arena or an atmosphere where everybody wants you to lose and get hurt, it can crush your spirit. For me it actually gave me that ‘fuck you’ attitude, excuse my French. It made me think, ‘you guys are booing me, alright, watch what I do.’ It actually made me fight harder.

Now, as sick as this may sound, I actually enjoy it. I relish it, I look forward to it. I get off on hearing the boos, seeing the drinks flying, looking into the eyes of people that I know want me to lose or see me as this villainous character. I feed off that. That might be a very strange, sick thing to say but it’s the truth.

SM: It feels like you have public support against Benn…

CEJ: You know what? There's been so many times in my career where I've thought, 'this is the time I'm going to be the good guy. This is the time I'm going to get cheered into an arena' – and it never happened. So now I have zero expectations, zero hope. I've accepted my fate. I hope for nothing. I expect nothing.

My second-to-last fight, career-best performance against Liam Smith. The first fight, that I lost, booed into the arena. The second fight, booing again. Had an amazing performance, avenged the defeat when everyone thought I was finished. I was respectful, shook the guy's hand. I wasn't a dick about it. I thought, come on, I got to get some cheers now.

Not long afterwards, I walk into Wembley Stadium for the Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois fight. Cameras are on me, I come up on all the screens, and 80,000 people boo me. That's when I truly understood there is nothing I can do to change the minds of a certain portion of the boxing public. They see me as a villain, as the bad guy, as the one they want to see lose and that's OK. I've accepted that. But I’m a different type of bad guy compared to fighters like Conor Benn.

SM: People love to hate you…

CEJ: Yes, I think that's very true. It's part of the show, it's part of the event. People buy their tickets for that. They love to hate me. Somebody like Conor Benn, people despise hating him. He had it. He was the golden boy, the good guy, the person that everyone was rooting for. They wanted him to be the next big thing in British boxing.

SM: Why do you think they rooted for him and not for you?

CEJ: I have no idea, you have to ask people, but he was in that position. He was the golden boy, something I never was, and then he threw it all away by trying to cheat in our first scheduled fight. So the hate that he gets, people despise the fact that they have to hate him now. He had all that support and he pissed it all away.

SM: I watched your joint interview with Piers Morgan. The online comments are very supportive of you…

CEJ: You know what? After years of being trolled and being booed into arenas and having people slaughter you on every single social media platform, you actually do stop reading comments. Because it's not healthy and it doesn't achieve anything.

What I learned over the years is focus on yourself, do the things which are going to improve you as a fighter and as a human being. As long as you can sleep at night, knowing you are on the right path and you're doing the right things and you're being a good person – that's all that matters. It doesn't matter what people are saying online, it doesn't matter about the trash talk.

Yes, I get booed into arenas. Yes, I get people saying all these crazy things about me online. But in the real world, in public, I’ve never had a bad altercation. It’s always handshakes and respect, it's always love. That's what I focus on. I focus on what I can really see and feel and experience, what's right in front of me. Not the computer warriors.

SM: That’s very healthy. It’s quite ironic that fighting the son of your father’s nemesis has ultimately made you the good guy…

CEJ: To be the good guy – that dream left my spirit a long time ago. But if it does happen because I smashed an egg over the guy's face, wow. That is not typically the behaviour of the good guy. Unless it's done to somebody even more of a bad guy than you are, which he should be. He is the drug cheat. We'll find out. We'll see.

SM: The egg may have been the greatest PR move of your career.

CEJ: I'm not a PR move guy. I'm not a guy who does things to his opponents. Yes, I will talk and I will say things and I will get into the minds of the people I'm fighting because that's a part of the fight. But I'll never not shake somebody's hand. I'll never put my hands on somebody unless they're trying to put their hands on me. This is the first time I've ever broken that rule and I broke it because of what he did.

Drug cheats who try to cut corners in the sport of boxing, they need to be embarrassed. They need to be made an example of. So the kids looking up at us know that if you ever do this, there are consequences.

SM: Is this the defining fight of your career?

CEJ: Absolutely. This is the biggest fight of my career. This is the fight with the most on the line, the most amount of eyes, the most amount of interest, the most amount of money, the most of everything. The legacy, the history, the respect, the pride, the family names. Everything is on the line.

SM: You famously said you'd be at 60% capability in the build-up to the first scheduled fight. Presumably that’s no longer your mindset…

CEJ: Things are too personal now, I can't really have that mindset. He had the best shot at beating me that first time around. I really was taking him lightly. Now, it's not that I think that he's a better fighter than he was back then so I'm training harder, but there's so much on the line. I can't afford to be nonchalant and relaxed about my preparation for this fight. I have to make an example of this guy.

SM: You mentioned earlier how much you've changed as a person. How much of that change is related to the tragic passing of your brother and your relationship with your young nephew?

CEJ: That experience, that loss. Nothing can prepare you for something like that. Losing a loved one at such a young age is horrific. You have to find ways to deal with it and if you don't, you end up losing your heart.

I was blessed to have Raheem, my brother's son. He was born a few months before my brother passed away so he has been able to help me deal with the trauma of losing my brother. The fact that he looks just like him, the fact that he has all the same mannerisms, it's like we lost him, but he was given right back to us in Raheem. It was like he was reincarnated into this young boy. Now we get to raise him and teach him. That's a part of my life that is very important to me and it's a feeling that I never thought I would ever have my whole life.

I never thought about kids and raising a child, teaching them things and taking them places. That was never something that attracted me. Some people are drawn to that. That's their kind of fantasy. That was never me. I was always so hellbent on the mission, success, career, money, fun. Everything was about me and my family, my immediate family.

My brother passes away and now I'm in a position where I have this kid. The things that I thought gave me happiness before? No club, no amount of money, no cars, no girls, none of that compares to the happiness I get from spending time with Raheem, which is crazy. Who would've thought? Now it makes me think about starting my own path into fatherhood, having my own son. That’s a whole other stage in my life that I have yet to enjoy but I'm looking forward to it.

SM: After the Liam Smith rematch, there was a video of you picking up Raheem, laughing together. It was very heartwarming…

CEJ: Usually after a fight, we're flying to Miami, we're flying to New York, flying to Ibiza. We're going to party, we're going to have fun, we're going to gamble. Now it's like, where's Raheem at? Let's go and take Raheem to the dinosaur park, take him to swim with some dolphins. It's crazy how one minute you think something is important or fun or something you want to do – and then the next minute it doesn't mean anything.

SM: I’ve seen recent interviews where you discuss mental health, opening up in a way I couldn’t imagine you doing as a younger man…

CEJ: I was still the same man. But I was so hell bent on proving everybody wrong and getting to where I wanted to get to in my career, I didn't really want to talk. I had these thoughts and these feelings but this is such a cruel and barbaric and cutthroat sport, I don't really want to give anything away. I don't want to expose anything. I don't want to spend any time talking about anything that isn't going to help me win fights. That's just the mentality I had and I guess I had to have it.

As you grow, you become wiser and you go through these life experiences. For me, I learned to separate myself from the fighter. I learned to separate the fighter from the human being. Before I couldn't separate, they were the same guy. I was the same guy everywhere I went. After a while I understood once I'm out of the gym, once I'm out of fight camp or sparring, I can't be a fighter, I have to be a civilian. You can't interact with other civilians and have a fighter's mentality, talk like a fighter, act like a fighter. People just think it's weird.

You are a weirdo because they don't understand. Most people don't understand what it is to be a fighter, so you can't bring that energy. It's intimidating. It turns people away from you. It scares people. You've got to be able to be the everyday guy. You can sit down and have a conversation. It took years and years and years for me to learn how to do it. But once I hit that stage of being able to separate, I was able to.

SM: Anything specific trigger that separation or was it a gradual process?

CEJ: Nothing triggered it. I grew up. I went through enough life experiences to start understanding, all right, some things need to change here. I need to be able to start speaking, I need to be able to start expressing what's in my mind. Not just fighting and talking shit about opponents.

I have my opinions, I need to not worry about being exposed and being vulnerable. People are booing me anyway. What's the worst that can happen? Let people see a different side to me. Let them see the side that I've been hiding for so long. I think it’s been a good thing.

SM: For the 2018 profile, you came to our office for the photoshoot. You were very relaxed, good company. It’s been cool seeing you showcase that side of yourself in recent years. People find you very funny.

CEJ: I do hear that. ‘Oh, he's a funny guy…’ In my twenties, no-one ever called me funny!

SM: Well you always looked quite intense.

CEJ: Yeah, I was a serious guy. That's all people knew of me. I was serious. I didn't even smile in pictures with people. I didn't have it in me. It wasn't an act. It wasn't me trying to be tough, I just didn't have it in my spirit to be happy, go lucky, fun. I had seen so much shit in the sport of boxing and outside of boxing that it made me think, no bullshit. I'm just going to keep to myself and work.

That same guy was still going back home every night and watching comedy specials and movies, laughing. But I would always hide that. I would hide that side of myself. But there's only so long before the real person comes out. When you're in front of a camera long enough, who you are as a person comes out.

The other thing which kind of stopped me from being known for who I really am is my father. He was such a massive presence and he was always next to me. So even if there were opportunities for my character to come through, it was kind of quelled by this massive character. Everything he said was a stop and listen moment. I couldn't get any words in so I let him do his thing and I just focused on the fight.

It got to a stage in my life where I realised that, if I was ever going to let people see this other side of me that I'd been hiding for so long, my father had to be… not removed from my life because I would never do that. But in terms of my career, in terms of boxing, in terms of press conferences and interviews, I had to stop having him right by my side.

SM: Which he didn't love…

CEJ: Which he couldn't understand, couldn't accept, didn't like. It affected our relationship in a massive way. He saw it as me turning my back on him, which wasn't the case. I said to him, I just want you to be my friend. I want you to be my dad. I don't want there to be a business aspect to this anymore. I don’t want you having to talk for me in interviews and press conferences. I don't want you having to deal with the financial side of my career. I want to control that. I'm my own man. At some point I'm going to write a book.

SM: An autobiography?

CEJ: I don’t know yet. There will be a book at some point in my life. About my life, about me expressing the things I've been through. I need it to be about the decisions I made, the way I felt, the things I wanted to do. Not, ‘my dad said this so I did that. He said that so I did this…’ That's not a book! That's a guide to Chris Eubank Senior, the guru. I can’t have that.

When I retire, I want to look back on the things I've done, my successes and my failures, and say, ‘that was me and I can live with that.’ I can live with failing or succeeding in the decisions that I made. I definitely can't live with failing or succeeding because of somebody else. Especially failing. There have been occasions in my life where I’ve failed in certain things, inside of boxing and outside of boxing, because of the decisions of other people, including my old man. So I had to take things into my own hands.

SM: I assume there's still no plan of him attending the fight at the moment.

CEJ: I would love for him to attend the fight. This exact moment in time, I don't know whether he will – which is a crazy thing to think because of the magnitude of the fight and everything that's happened. We'll see.

SM: Have you spoken much?

CEJ: We rarely speak. As sad as it is to say, it's the truth. I spoke to him once, one real conversation over the last couple of years. A few weeks ago at my cousin Harlem's fight in Brighton. He still believes that the fight won’t happen. I would say that's crazy but he was saying the same thing before the first one! So I can't even argue with him about it. I've just got to do what I've got to do to win and that's it. Hopefully once it gets down to the wire and you can see this is going to happen, you'll be around. But I can't confirm that will happen until it does.

SM: There’s a video of a teenage Conor discussing a potential fight with you. He has a very different persona…

CEJ: As you get older you change. That's just what happens. In that interview, he was a young kid who had no idea how far he was going to make it. Now he's undefeated and he's a star in the sport. He thinks he can beat me. He's a different man and so am I.

SM: What's your plan after Conor?

CEJ: This fight is so huge that I can't even afford to look a day past the fight and I haven't done. What I'm going to do, who I'm going to fight, what I'm going to say – I have not thought about any of that. My mind is on what am I going to do to make sure I'm the best fighter I can be once that bell goes on April 26. Nothing else matters.

SM: Have you imagined winning? A lot of people visualise stuff into being…

CEJ: That's what you do as a fighter. You visualise, you study your opponent, you work on things that you think are going to work and then you dream about it. You see it happening. The laws of attraction. I believe in the laws of attraction. I believe in manifestation. That's right. I believe in that. So if you think about something for long enough and hard enough, it will. That's the experiences I've had in my life.

SM: You’re coming close to the end of your boxing career. Will you miss it?

CEJ: You say close. If you're smart, if you are responsible with how you live your life, if you're smart with how you navigate the sport, some guys can fight until they're 40 years old. I could have another five years in this sport.

SM: Do you want another five years?

CEJ: I don’t know. For me, it's not about timelines. It's about listening to your body, listening to your mind. If there's ever a day when I'm not enjoying doing what I'm doing, or I can't physically keep up with the brutal regimes that are necessary to get into tiptop shape for a big fight, then I'll stop. I'm not at that stage now, very far from it. So I don't think this is something that's going to happen anytime soon, to be honest. But I'm in a blessed position where I have a lot of passions and things going on in my life outside of boxing that will be there whenever I do retire. Things that I can enjoy, that I can make money from, that I can spend time doing.

It's a sad thing to say, but so many fighters don't have that. All they know is boxing. And when it finally does finish, ‘shit, what do I do? I've got this amount of money so I've got to make this last.’ And once that's gone, ‘alright, well I've got to work nine-to-five or I've got to do commentary, or I've got to become a trainer.’ I've worked way too hard. I've sacrificed way too much to ever put myself in that position. I'm responsible for my money and I'm smart with it.

Again, a sad thing to say, but so many fighters aren't responsible. They blow through money like it grows on trees. Most fighters come from nothing. So when they actually do have it, they want everything they never had. They haven't been educated in the art of keeping your money and letting it grow; not just spending it on things you want to spend it on. I'm very disciplined when it comes to money.

I'm going to be comfortable and I won't be upset. A lot of guys, it's like they're lost and tormented by the fact that they can't do the thing they do. The only thing they know. I have other loves and passions, so I'll be okay whenever that fateful day comes where I say, ‘you know what? I've got to stop.’

SM: Do you have any goals or ambitions for your post-boxing career?

CEJ: Life doesn't work like that. If you wait to do something, wait until you retire and then say, all right, I want to do this now, it's never going to work. You have to have the steps in place. You have to already be doing it. I already have businesses. I already have a large property portfolio. I own a medical spa and sauna. I have a management company. I'm in the crypto world. I play high stakes poker. I'm invested in many different things. I have all these things in place already. Those are the things that I will continue to do once I retire.

That's what I would advise every fighter to do – start finding things early you can pour your energy into that are going to sustain you once you retire. Because boxing is extremely short, period, and 95% of the fighters don't make money that's going to last them for the rest of their lives. You have to find something that will keep you going once you retire or once you get injured. It could be over like that and then what are you going to do?

Don't just go to the gym and come home and sleep and play video games. Study, take courses, take classes, read books, go to seminars, events. Learn. Because you will retire and then you will have to go and work in a gym as a trainer.

SM: I get the impression you won't become a trainer...

CEJ: There's nothing wrong with training fighters. It's a beautiful thing. We need trainers. Without trainers, fighters couldn't become who they are. But it's not for the guys who have grafted their whole lives and then have to go and train other guys.

We've worked too hard. We've sacrificed too much. We should be able to live out the rest of our lives in comfort after our careers are done. Most fights don’t but that's how it should happen. So put yourself in the best position to be able to make it happen. 

Watch Chris Eubank vs Conor Benn on 26 April live on Sky Sports Box Office and DAZN