Former four-weight world champion, Roy Jones Jr, who was Chris Eubank Jr’s trainer before the Conor Benn announcement, has voiced his opinion on the matchmaking process.
Given that the event has been made and sold on the fact that the fighters fathers fought each other twice in the nineties, Eubank Jr opted to break from Jones Jr as his trainer to ask his old man to be in the corner on the night.
It turns out Jones, who is three fights deep into his trainer – fighter partnership with Eubank, fully supported the decision for Senior to be in the corner – ‘Your fathers are the reason the fight is happening, and having the fathers there in the corners is going to make it even bigger for everybody’.
But plans were changed yet again as Chris Eubank Sr emotionally tried to have the fight pulled altogether, never mind declining to train his son, citing a dangerous weight cut. It’s still unclear who will be in the corner come fight night.
Although not being involved in the fight itself, the hall-of-famer did provide a different view on how the inevitable legacy fight should have come about. Speaking to ProBox TV, he said:
“This is what I suggested to them before – Chris Eubank Jr has a cousin called Harlem Eubank.
He’s still a Eubank, Benn’s still a Benn. Harlem fights at 140, Conor Benn fights 147. Why don’t we make that fight first. If Conor beats Harlem, which he should, because he’s bigger, now there’s even more of a reason for the Chris Eubank Jr fight. You understand me. So there’s a way of making a few more chips in this game.
It’s risky yes, because if Harlem beats him. But they probably would have a good fight because they’re close in weight, whereas Chris Eubank is two weight classes apart, whereas Harlem is just one.
That was my dream – to let Harlem fight Conor and if Conor can beat Harlem then he can say ‘ok I beat the little Eubank, now I want the big Eubank’.”
It’s hard to imagine Conor ever accepting a fight against Harlem. After several impressive performances he seemed to be on the verge a world title shot, only a mega fight with Chris Eubank Jr could have lured him away from that.
Harlem continues his junior welterweight journey on the undercard next Saturday against David Martin Campillo. All the action will be shown exclusively on DAZN pay-per-view for £19.99 in the UK.