Online Reporter
CHRIS EUBANK SR is dreading the long-term damage his son suffered from his first Conor Benn battle hitting home before he turns 40.
The pair rerun their bitter rivalry on Saturday night — live on DAZN PPV— six months after the original epic clash that left both men in hospital.
At 36, Junior is once again boiling his 5ft 11in frame down to 11st 6lb for the mega-money clash and facing financial penalties if he weighs in over that limit on Friday.
And he will be restricted to what he can rehydrate to on Saturday morning, with the first clash limiting him to a 10lb boost to help recover the crucial fluid that protects the brain.
Eubank Sr, 59, knows first hand how brutal the sport is— after tragically inflicting life-changing injuries on Michael Watson in 1991 —and fears for his boy’s future ahead of the rematch.
Watching the middleweight clash back on SunSport’s No Glove Lost YouTube show which airs on Tuesday, British ring legend Sr said: “I look back and calculate. The damage Jr suffered will show up in three to four years.
“My question is, what’s the cost? What is the cost to the individuals doing it? That’s what we are dealing with, this is no game.
“Jr coming down to 160lb, at 36, is madness. But we have said this, to lose weight, that’s where the damage happens. When you get dehydrated.
“For three years I was saying that this fight shouldn’t be happening because the weights are wrong. I’m not going to go bleating on the same subject — you will see, there will be consequences. Dehydration is dangerous.”
NGL panel stars and former super-middleweight world champions Carl Froch and George Groves pushed back at Sr’s emotional stance.
But, Eubank, a veteran of 52 professional fights — who lost his fellow fighter and brother Simon to frontal lobe dementia in 2023 — stood firm after watching his son’s dash to hospital.
“You were not in the ambulance with my son,” he clapped back at our expert panel. “He was touch and go in the ambulance.
“He was touch and go and, I’m saying to you, the public don’t see that. I’m always behind my son. What I’m not behind is the stupidity and the incompetence of these promoters, who are flouting the rules in terms of weights — and this is how fighters end up disabled.”
In 2016, Groves also inflicted devastating and permanent injuries on a sporting rival, Eduard Gutknecht. It almost destroyed the Hammersmith man and he constantly carries the burden of the tragedy.
But he pushed back at Senior’s criticisms of the bout, because Junior — who he beat in 2018 up at super-middle — is an experienced and wealthy veteran who knows exactly what he is signing up for. Speaking directly to Eubank Sr, he said: “I’ve made weight and, like you, I’ve hurt someone, permanently, badly, and it affected me.
“It put an end, a timeline, on the end of my career. I had an exit strategy after that fight – before I’d even won the world title.
“Chris, I know the dangers of boxing, just as well as you do. But, at this point, he’s a grown man, he wants to do this weight, if it was a problem he would move up.”
Froch, 48, supported his two-fight rival, saying: “The cost is, obviously, we can get injured. We don’t call it a game, it’s a fight.
“And you can go in there and you can get injured and you can get an injury that you might not walk away from. But that’s what we sign up for.”
Senior stole the show when he rolled into the Saudi-funded Tottenham classic in spring.
And, when the three scorecards were read out — and gave him the unanimous decision — Junior dropped to his knees and sobbed in relief. —Sun.
Mathew Masinge