Chris Eubank Jr against Conor Benn for the second time this year is the next part of a family feud that’s lasted 35 years.
Their fathers, Chris and Nigel, may have had a bitter rivalry back in the 90s, but they managed smiles and an awkward hug at the final news conference this week.
Their two boys don’t like each other, even though they ended up metres apart in hospital beds after 12 brutal rounds in April.
Speaking about the April bout, Conor Benn said it left him nauseous – but for his dad, it was all about emotion.
“I was throwing up, feeling sick in hospital. I can’t remember what my dad said, but Senior was just emotional. He was like ‘why are you putting yourself through this? Like to both [of us]: ‘Why are you guys doing this?’
“He was really upset because we were both in hospital. But we love this, this is what we do, this is what we are.”
For Eubank Jr, dehydration was the biggest issue and the worst was over “after a day or so”.
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“I was hooked up to drips and they had to just replenish my body over a day or two. But, listen, this is what we sign up for. We’re fighters.”
His father was against the first fight because of the dangers to his son, the bigger man, dropping down to the 160lb weight limit and the dehydration involved.
In a dramatic late U-turn, he joined in the ring walk, stealing the show.
Chris Eubank Junior said his father “still found it in himself and in his heart to come and support his son on the biggest night of his life, which meant a lot. It meant everything.
“This time round, to be completely honest with you, he is still against the fight. He wants me to retire.”
The contest healed a long-running rift between father and son and put another Eubank win on the board.
But both men left everything in the ring that night and Conor Benn says putting the weight of the family names aside, there is respect there.
“I ain’t got to like him, still not my cup of tea, but there is a respect there of course, because he brought out a fight in me. I brought out a fight in him.
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“When you’ve both shed blood, you are both in hospital together, gave people the fight of the year, how can you not respect the man?”
So they go again at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with another reported £18m purse on the line.
There’s less emotion this time in perhaps the final chapter of a famous boxing rivalry.
