Kalle Sauerland spoke to Boxing Social in the light of rumours that his fighter, Chris Eubank Jr, may have been forced out of a fight with Conor Benn by his father, Eubank Sr.
The boxing world was sent into a frenzy yesterday as Chris Eubank Sr, who shared a rivalry with Nigel Benn decades before their sons signed up to fight each other, said he was pulling his son out.
Fans will be thankful that one of the men closest to the event and Eubank Jr was a surprised as they were to see the news reported.
Speaking to Boxing Social’s Charlie Parsons, Sauerland began by clearing up any confusion.
“First of all, the fight is on. The fight has never been off since it got signed. The weights were agreed very early on in the discussions.”
“The weight, the rehydration that was all agreed. What I would say is what happens between father and son, I can’t comment on. Never have. I’ve got a huge amount of respect for [Eubank] Senior. I don’t know how those comments were made – they weren’t to multiple sources, they weren’t at a press conference, they were I believe at a launch of the speaking tour of Senior and Nigel Benn, which is by the way a fantastic show.”
“It’s a bit of a pain in the a**e for us, but at the same time, what are we, three weeks out? This week will probably be a more quiet week on Eubank-Benn.”
As for Chris Eubank Jr, who hasn’t come out to comment on the feelings of his father, he’s still training hard for a scrap.
“I can only comment on what I have and that’s we’re contracted with [Eubank] Junior, who is fully onboard. My biggest problem at the moment is finding sparring partners. Our team’s getting [them] from all over Europe because he’s going through them at an alarming rate. He’s putting a great camp in here, despite walking round with KFC buckets. There’s a lot of showmanship around it, which we all knew [would be the case].”
Finally, the promoter, who has been working alongside Eddie Hearn to produce the super fight, confirmed that he has spoken to Eubank Jr since Senior’s comments hit the headlines.
“He didn’t really address it, it was more ‘what do you need tomorrow for sparring?’, things like that. He’s got his own team in Brighton and he’s got the Wasserman Boxing team up in London who are organising certain things for him. It was more day-to-day arrangement stuff. It wasn’t a call [to say] ‘oh is this true?’”
So, it appears that, as things stand, the fight is on and training camp is going well. How Eubank Sr’s disapproval changes things in his son’s corner on the night, we’re yet to find out. You can catch up with the full interview below.