November 20, 1976: It begins with the ringing of an alarm clock at four in the morning. We then see an arm reach out and discover that it belongs to Rocky Balboa, who knows he must now get out of bed and prepare for his morning run.
He does so with a heavyweight’s sigh. He shuffles dozily into the kitchen, opens the fridge, and closes his eyes, startled by the light. When at last they reopen, he begins to methodically crack five eggs into a large container. One after another the five eggs crack and only after the fifth does Rocky drink them raw, the yolk from the container dripping down his cheeks and chin. After that, in the film’s next scene, we see Rocky stumble out of his house and start stretching ahead of his morning run.
In movie theatres all over the world, millions upon millions watch this scene and together learn the superpowers of eggs – specifically, when consumed raw. If before eggs as a beverage was a secret confined to the gyms of bodybuilders and professional fighters, now, thanks to its depiction in Rocky, the secret is out. Now the whole world understands what it takes to reach Rocky Balboa levels of toughness and dedication.
October 15, 1993: Sam Eggington, a future professional boxer, is born in Smethwick, England. His connection with eggs stretches no further than his surname, admittedly, but his surname, for the purposes of this history lesson, is relevant and therefore enough. After all, it is thanks in part to Sam Eggington that people in boxing, writers and fans alike, have a ready-made list of egg-based puns to reach for whenever one is needed. It was on Eggington that we all practised, you see. It was because of Eggington that we cracked it, you might say.
August 1, 2020: Sam Eggington fights Ted Cheeseman in Brentwood, Essex and all lovers of food-based puns get their moment to shine in what becomes their version of De Niro and Pacino sharing that scene in Heat. The fight, in truth, is good enough to not need them – the puns, that is – but that doesn’t mean headline writers and fans aren’t licking their lips at the prospect of pairing “egg” with “cheese” in their tweets, previews and reports. In fact, it wasn’t until Eggington-Cheeseman that we understood just how fun and powerful a food-based pun could be in a sport that tries, and more often fails, to take itself seriously. Besides, it is 2020. We all need some levity.
October 6, 2022: A fight between Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jnr, sons of a couple of British boxing legends, is cancelled on the Thursday of fight week when news breaks that Benn failed two performance-enhancing drugs tests during training camp. The drug for which he failed is called clomiphene, a strange and exotic word that at the time means nothing to most of us. Yet, of course, it won’t be long before clomiphene has entered the sport’s vernacular. All it takes is time, education, and the realisation that clomiphene can be linked to a certain food item.
October 26, 2022: In a room full of British boxing journalists, Benn’s promoter Eddie Hearn does as he always does: face the music. Bombarded by questions, and seeing only frowns, Hearn spends almost two hours explaining the situation from his point of view and outlines, to the best of his ability and knowledge, the ramifications of it all. He also expresses his support for Benn – his belief in his innocence – and suggests that the only way clomiphene could have got into the boxer’s body would have been due to either contamination or him unknowingly ingesting something. There is mention of eggs as a possible cause. But even Hearn doesn’t seem sure about that – saying it, imagining it, believing it. It is not his idea.
January 26, 2023: Benn and his legal team are summoned to a meeting at which the World Boxing Council (WBC) explains that there was nothing wrong with the testing procedures conducted prior to the Londoner’s aborted fight with Eubank Jnr. Team Benn is then invited to submit further evidence regarding his diet at the time of the first failed test (on July 25, 2022). “Mr Benn’s documented and highly-elevated consumption of eggs during the times relevant to the sample collection raised a reasonable explanation for the adverse finding,” the WBC later concludes.
February 23, 2023: Shortly after Benn is “cleared” of doping by the WBC, Domino’s Pizza post to their various social media accounts a photo of a pizza loaded with hard-boiled eggs and call it “The Conor Benn Special”. Benn, in fairness to him, takes the dig in his stride, claiming he prefers his pizzas from Pizza Hut anyway.
March 6, 2023: By March the egg thing is now a bit of a running yolk and Benn can no longer hide his annoyance. They might have “cleared” him, the WBC, but he wishes they had never mentioned eggs in the first place. He even uses an interview with Piers Morgan to refute the suggestion that he himself proposed eggs were to blame for any adverse finding. “I don’t accept that, no,” said Benn. “The WBC came out and said one of their scientists was currently dealing with two cyclists who had tested positive for clomiphene in traces and they can prove it’s in the embryos of eggs. I’m not willing to accept it because the 270-page report that my team sent over to them had nothing to do with eggs.”
February 25, 2025: Two-and-a-half years after they were originally meant to fight, Eubank Jnr vs Benn is finally set to happen, with Benn now cleared to box in the UK and Eubank Jnr still clucking for that franchise payday. It is a different fight now, too, for it turns out controversy is an even more powerful drug than either clomiphene or nostalgia. Forget the dads, it is now all about eggs with these two. That’s all Eubank Jnr seems to ever post about when trying to goad Benn online and it’s also why Eubank Jnr carries eight of them – yes, eggs – in each coat pocket to a press conference ahead of facing off with his rival in Manchester. He then takes one of these eggs in his right hand and proceeds to smash it across the cheek of Benn during said face-off, sparking a melee on stage.
Later, in an effort to explain himself, Eubank Jnr hops on social media to write: “Apparently egg contamination was the reason for his two failed drugs tests. So I contaminated him with an egg.”
February 27, 2025: Two days on from that incident, the fighters meet again at another press conference. On this occasion tensions are high, even higher than before, and security measures are increased in response. To make light of it all, security guards have a phoney “egg detector”, which they proceed to run all over Eubank Jnr’s body before he sits down at the top table. “Did I cross the line?” Eubank Jnr says, reflecting on his behaviour earlier in the week. “During this whole process I think many lines have been crossed. Me throwing an egg at somebody who absurdly claims that [eggs] was the reason why he failed two drug tests, I think that’s light. I think he deserved the embarrassment of what happened. If I had an opportunity to do it again, I would. Unfortunately, though, I come unarmed today. I’ve been searched multiple times and I couldn’t sneak any in.”
March 11, 2025: Chris Eubank Jnr is fined £100,000 by the British Boxing Board of Control for slapping Conor Benn with an egg at their first press conference. In a statement, the Board say: “Following a hearing before the stewards of the British Boxing Board of Control, Chris Eubank Jr was found to be in breach of regulation 25 [misconduct] for his conduct at the press conference in Manchester for the Chris Eubank Jnr v Conor Benn contest on 26th April 2025.
“As such, the stewards of the board fined Chris Eubank Jnr the sum of £100,000.”
March 12, 2025: Reacting to the £100,000 fine the following day, Eubank Jnr posts on social media: “Worth every penny.”
April 13, 2025: During the taping of Sky Sports’ The Gloves Are Off, a peculiar thing happens while light-heavyweights Ben Whittaker and Liam Cameron contemplate shaking hands as they sit opposite each other at a table. Asked by the host, Johnny Nelson, if a handshake is likely, Cameron is the first to propose that it’s the right thing to do and expresses his willingness to extend his hand in the direction of Whittaker. However, Whittaker, struggling to contain a smirk, clearly has other ideas, as well as something up his sleeve. It is then that Cameron, having offered his hand, spots the egg in Whittaker’s hand. “What am I going to do with this, eh?” asks Whittaker, now passing the egg from one hand to the other to keep Cameron on edge. He then asks the question again, but just as soon cracks. With a smile, Whittaker says, “No, I’m joking,” and at last initiates the handshake. Relieved, Cameron in return says, “I thought you were going to throw that egg”, and demonstrates how he might have dodged it as the face-off ends.
October 30, 2025: If you thought Whittaker toying with an egg on Sky Sports was confusing, at least it was relatively topical and came on the heels of Chris Eubank Jnr putting one across Conor Benn’s face at a press conference in February. There is no such excuse for Ezra Arenyeka, however, when he opts to conclude a face-off with Billy Deniz – in October! – by attempting to strike him with an egg he had carefully concealed in his right hand. It doesn’t even land flush, the attempt. Instead, unlike Eubank Jnr’s effort eight months ago, Arenyeka’s attack is ill-conceived and sloppy and all Deniz does is stand still and smile. He is neither hurt nor shocked. He is just bemused. “He’s trying to copy Chris Eubank Jnr with the egg thing,” Deniz says after the event. “But why’s he done that? I’ve never tested positive for eggs [clomiphene] or owt. He’s just a sausage. I didn’t expect anything less.”
Encouraged to explain his thought process, Arenyeka says, “I slapped him with an egg, bro”, to state the obvious. “He’s a scumbag, innit. That’s why. He lied in an interview and said I punched him three times after the bell [in sparring]. He’s trying to make me out to be a bad guy, which I’m not. I’m going to teach him a lesson.”
Oh yes, the lesson.
If Arenyeka is to be believed, lessons in boxing can now be learned by receiving an egg across the face, at which point the recipient concedes they have done wrong – either in failing a drugs test or “lying” – and vows never to err again.
Only it never happens like that, does it? In fact, if we gauge the reactions of Benn, Cameron and Deniz this year, the two most common reactions to the possibility, or reality, of an egg hitting someone’s face are these: anger and confusion. The anger, evident on the face of Benn, had a lot to do with the idea of being publicly shamed, plus the shock of being struck, whereas the confusion of Cameron and Deniz owed everything to what they construed as desperation on the part of the one using an egg as a prop.
Still, lesson or not, it’s interesting to chart the journey of the egg, both in 2025 and throughout the sport’s history. From the early-morning workout fuel of Rocky Balboa in 1974 to getting blamed for two failed drugs tests in 2022, I think you’ll agree that it has endured quite the evolution over the course of 50-odd years, the egg. It is now not just a source of protein but also a source of violence and, better yet, a way for a boxer to go viral. It’s why so many boxers will keep whisking it. It’s also why Conor Benn, as much as he would love to, will never be able to escape the smell it left behind.
