Chris Eubank Jnr issues warning to Conor Benn – and threatens Nigel

Chris Eubank Jnr insisted Conor Benn got off “light” when he slapped him with an egg at Tuesday’s press conference.

Two days after having to be separated in Manchester the bitterest of rivals came face to face again at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where on April 26 they will finally fight.

Eubank Jnr, having been asked a question by the host of the press conference that was intended to provoke a reaction from both fighters on the subject of Tuesday’s flashpoint, then proceeded to, as he also did on Tuesday and as he regularly has on other occasions since the cancellation of their date in 2022, criticise, without the slightest hint of hesitation, both Benn and Benn’s promoter Eddie Hearn. 

The 35 year old and Benn were just days away from fighting when it emerged that Benn had twice tested positive for the banned substance clomifene and their contest was instead cancelled. Benn has consistently maintained his innocence – it was in November 2024 when the National Anti-Doping Panel lifted his suspension, in turn allowing him to attempt to resume his career in the UK – but Eubank Jnr has repeatedly dismissed him as a “cheat”, and had purposefully used an egg in a reference to one explanation for Benn’s positive drugs tests surrounding his consumption of eggs.

“During this whole process over the past two-and-a-half years many lines have been crossed,” Eubank Jnr said. “I’m sitting on a stage with two of the scummiest characters in boxing. A drug cheat, and a man who did everything in his power to help him get away with it.

“Me throwing an egg at somebody who absurdly claims that that was the reason he failed two drug tests, because of contaminated eggs – I think that’s light. He deserved the embarrassment of what happened. If I had an opportunity to do it again I would.

“I’ve always respected every fighter I’ve fought, bar one. Respect is reserved for fighters who are true. Who don’t cheat. If you cheat, I don’t care how many fights you’ve had; how brave you are; how well you’ve done, I don’t respect you. So no, there is no respect in this fight.”

There followed periods in which Matchroom’s Hearn – on the occasions Eubank Jnr wasn’t interrupting him – claimed that Benn is to be given a licence to fight by the British Boxing Board of Control, when the tedious subject of the purse splits was revisited, and when it was also again touched upon that both fighters have in their contracts a rematch clause in the event of defeat.

The emotional Benn, 28, dismissed Eubank Jnr previously winning a championship from the lightly-regarded IBO as “not a legitimate title”. Eubank Jnr – as aware of his reputation and image as Benn is short-tempered – then claimed that he is going to give £50,000 from what is certain to be a career-high purse to be shared by the undercard fighters who also missed out in 2022 as a consequence of Benn’s failed tests.

Inevitably, the subject returned to what happened on Tuesday when he reached for an egg that had been in one of his pockets. The once-manufactured rivalry that existed between Eubank Jnr and Benn owed to the authenticity of that that existed between their fathers Chris Snr and Nigel in the 1990s, and it was Nigel Benn who Eubank Jnr then focused on and threatened.

“I understand the frustration and the heat that you were experiencing a couple of days ago after I egged Conor,” he said.

“I didn’t know – I thought you actually glassed him, mate,” the 61 year old responded. “That’s why I nearly got my hands around your throat.”

“I understand,” Eubank Jnr then said. “But you did put your hand on my neck. I’m gonna give you a pass because of what happened, but I’m just letting you know, if your hand ever touches me again you won’t get it back.”

Conor Benn, until then struggling for words, immediately responded: “Shut your fucking mouth – do you hear me? Threaten my dad again, watch what happens to you.”

“I had this with his dad – I’m old school, mate,” Nigel Benn reassured his son. “It’s not a problem. I understand and I apologise for doing that, mate. I really am sorry that I done that. You put your hand on me son.”

Finally Derek Chisora, with the same sense of mischief that underpins so many of his intentions and present despite there existing no plans to feature him on the undercard, interrupted to ask the fighters’ promoters, Hearn and Boxxer’s Ben Shalom, if they would agree to a £100,000 bet on the outcome of April’s contest. 

Their agreement was almost certainly the last that will be heard about that bet. The subjects of eggs, and who’s lying, and who’s cheating, are certain to be revisited ad nauseam – perhaps even with the same regularity as the video game so inexplicably attached to the promotion that Hearn promised will be “the UK’s biggest ever” – until April 26.