A night that didn’t turn out so well for the friend he was on hand to support ultimately turned out to reshape the career of Chris Eubank Jr.
The second-generation boxer from Brighton, England has spent the past two months training with former four-division champion and all-time great Roy Jones Jr. at the latter’s private facility in his hometown of Pensacola, Florida. Their working relationship began with a happenchance meet in Las Vegas. Jones was in town to work the corner of super middleweight prospect Kevin Newman II, who was due to face Genc Pllana on a Showtime-televised card this past February live from Sam’s Town along the Vegas strip.
Eubank Jr.—who was living and training in town at the time—was on hand to support Newman, while also taking the opportunity to meet Jones Jr. The fight didn't turn out well for Newman, who dropped a split decision in the Showtime televised opener that evening. The casual meeting between his friend and his trainer to follow, however, would soon develop into a working relationship.
“After the fight, that’s where I got to sit down and speak with him,” Eubank Jr. (29-2, 22KOs) explained on the most recent edition of The PBC Podcast. “Being a middleweight and super middleweight, Roy has always been a fighter I’ve admired and who I looked up to throughout my entire career. Being able to sit down and pick his brain for 5-10 minutes that night was a big deal. He’s a really cool guy.
“Him mentioning that he had his own gym. Kevin said he has a private farm in Pensacola where he went for a week or so to train for his fight camp. That was all knowledge in the back of my mind, like OK I’d like to go out there at some point and see how it is. In the past, it was to ask him a bunch of questions, take a picture and that was it. I kind of left that night thinking it would be cool to train with Roy at some point. I didn’t know when.”
The universe would help expedite that union. The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic became a global health crisis in mid-March, with much of Las Vegas all but shutting down from that time through present day.
With his only purpose in town to train and to enjoy the lifestyle that the strip has to offer, there was no longer a reason to stick around. The only question was his next move.
“I was like, wow I gotta get out here. What was I gonna do? I can’t train, there’s nothing to do and there’s really no other reason to be in Vegas, so what I was going to do,” Eubank Jr. pondered. “Then it came to my mind—message Roy and he has a private gym. That would be perfect. This is the perfect opportunity to test it out.
I called my dad and told him, “Everything was closing down and there was no longer a reason to be in Vegas. Can you get a hold of Roy and ask if I can come train with him?” Within an hour, he said yeah it was cool and I was on a plane the next day. I’ve been here for over two months now.”
A now-viral clip of one of their training sessions has made the social media rounds. Jones Jr. was demonstrating proper head and upper body movement, with Eubank Jr. soaking in all of the knowledge. The pairing is an interesting one, given his father, Chris Eubank Sr. proved an elusive target during his time spent as a two-division titlist during the 1990s.
There was a brief period where both he and Jones Jr. held titles in the division, with Jones Jr. moving up to super middleweight for a career-defining 12-round wipeout of then-unbeaten titlist James Toney in November 1994. Eubank Jr. was already three years into his own 168-pound reign after having briefly held a middleweight belt, and was on the verge of making his 15th successful defense later that December.
Any hope of their meeting in a clash of unbeaten titlists went up in flames when Eubank Sr. suffered the first of two consecutive losses to Steve Collins in 1995. It was a missed opportunity for Eubank Sr., though fate eventually led his son to the future Hall of Famer.
If there’s any regret, it’s that it took for a pandemic to bring forth what figures to be a game changer for the middleweight title hopeful.
“I’m actually upset that I haven’t met this man early on in my career,” admits Eubank Jr., who made his United States debut last December in a two-round injury stoppage of Matvey Korobov in Brooklyn, New York. :The training, the way we got on and everything we’ve been doing has been amazing.
“Definitely one of the best decisions that I’ve made in my career to come train with him. Roy and I are going to be working together for years.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox