Chris Eubank Jr slaps Conor Benn with an egg (Image: PA)
A face-off between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn set for later today has been scrapped amid security worries.
This development follows a heated encounter in Manchester on Tuesday night where the two boxing talents exchanged sharp words at a press conference, escalating to a point where Eubank Jr struck Benn with an egg. The altercation was quickly contained by security as Benn tried to retaliate. Taking to social media after the incident, Benn fired off: “That’s the only shot you’ll land on me you f****** p****. Two rounds you are finished.”
Benn managed to overturn his suspension last November and will now step into the ring at the middleweight limit of 160lb, with a strict cap of adding no more than 10lb by Saturday morning.
Eubank Jr couldn’t resist taking a jibe at Benn after remarks about the latter’s egg consumption being linked to his failed drug tests, which he maliciously brought up to taunt Benn at the press conference. Not one to stay out of the limelight, the 35 year old Eubank Jr also took a shot at Benn’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, in a heated exchange that prevented Hearn from speaking at the outset.
Uncompromisingly, he told Hearn: “Eddie, you know I don’t like you, right? So if you know that, what on God’s sweet earth makes you think I’m gonna listen to anything you have to say? We’re gonna skip past whatever bulls*** you were going to say. You can sabotage the event, and I’ll just start talking to Benn directly.”benn
Following a chaotic press conference in Manchester, Eddie Hearn spoke to Sky Sports and suggested that anything could happen now. “He came on stage with an egg. I thought it was glass. The noise and the way it shattered was like a glass. We don’t know what’s happened. All I’m saying now, all bets are off. If you bump into Nigel Benn in the next 10 minutes, watch yourself,” he warned.
Hearn also commented on Eubank’s premeditated actions, stating: “The thing is with Eubank is that everything is pre-mediated. He’s sat there at night and thought ‘I’m going to hit him round the face with an egg’. Some might find it funny. Imagine you in a head to head right now, the police would be looking for you. The game is the game, the fight is the fight. All bets are off. Anything goes. You’ve gone to that level. Thursday at Spurs. It’s on sight.”
Meanwhile, Eubank Jr’s promoter Shalom claimed ignorance about his client’s plans, admitting: “Honestly I don’t know what happened. It was an egg, we can see it was an egg, but I didn’t know what it was at the time. I was in shock at the time like everyone else. It kicked of there… it was a great press conference up till then but I think that was too far.”