It all seems so obvious now: Chris Eubank Jnr was never going to beat Conor Benn in their rematch such was his physical deterioration. The clues were plentiful.
They can be traced back a long way, too.
An argument can be made that he has not been the same fighter since he opted to return to middleweight at the end of 2019. Prior to that, he had dominated a past-it James DeGale over 12 rounds. It was Eubank’s sixth fight at 168lbs over a two-year period.
In December 2019, in his first contest back at middleweight, we learned little from a bout against Matvey Korobov due to the Russian retiring 34 seconds into the second round with an injured shoulder.
Eubank would not fight again until May 2021, after a 16-month layoff, when he weighed 161lbs for his behind-closed-doors 10-rounder with Marcus Morrison in Manchester. Then 31 years old, Eubank controlled much of the contest but did not impress as he struggled to cut down the ring and impose his superior athleticism on a fighter who would subsequently be knocked out by Zach Parker and Denzel Bentley.
At the time, it was fair to assume that Eubank was transitioning from the old Eubank into a new Eubank – it was his first fight under trainer Roy Jones Jnr and the pair had been tweaking the Englishman’s style, out in Florida, during the pandemic. That pandemic was cited as another reason why Eubank might have been off form: One, he had just endured the longest spell on the sidelines of his career, and two, the lack of atmosphere created a peculiar battleground due to fans being prohibited from attending.
Regardless, the Eubank who outpointed Morrison was not a patch on the Eubank who had destroyed British and Irish middleweights like Gary O’Sullivan, Nick Blackwell, and Tom Doran prior to stepping up a division five years before.
Six months after the Morrison victory, Eubank again failed to convince against the overmatched Wanik Awdijan until a hurtful body shot convinced the German to stay on his stool at the end of the fifth. For this bout, Eubank hit the scales at 164lbs.
In February 2022 there were flashes of the ‘old’ Eubank when he dropped Liam Williams three times in the opening four rounds. But ringsiders were perplexed when Eubank allowed the Welshman to get back into the contest and – another knockdown in the 11th notwithstanding – make it a far more difficult night than it had any business being at the start. There were whispers by now that Eubank, at 32, might be starting to fade.
Then came the announcement that Benn would be next in October 2022. It was set at a catchweight of 157lbs, 11lbs south of what Eubank had weighed when at his best. The contest was cancelled 48 hours before it was due to start when it emerged that Benn had failed two drug tests but, by then, Eubank was already at a weight he had not been since he was a teenager. Quite what that emaciation did to his body – merely three years after campaigning at super middleweight – was at the time unknown.
Three months later, in January 2023, Eubank was stopped in the fourth round by Liam Smith in a sensational upset. It appeared that his shot resistance, which had always been beyond reliable, had deserted him. By now, it should have been obvious that his weight-cutting habits were having an adverse effect.
Perhaps why it wasn’t clear can be explained by what came next: A one-sided demolition of Smith in an immediate return. What we didn’t know, however, was that Smith had been through hell to make the September 2023 date. The veteran would later admit to being ravaged by injuries and allege that his then-promoter Ben Shalom had warned that if he didn’t take the lucrative fight then it would not be rescheduled.
Eubank then spent 13 months out of the ring. He would return against Kamil Szeremeta in a contest designed to whet the appetite for the soon-to-be-announced showdown with Conor Benn. After watching Eubank get the job done in seven rounds Benn observed: “If he fights like that against me he’s getting knocked out.” Benn had a point, too. Eubank looked unsteady even while largely dominating. His legs did not have the bounce of old, his chin had lost some steel, and the potency of his punches no longer appeared concussive.
Fast forward to April this year and that titanic battle with Benn. It’s worth remembering that Benn had not proven himself at welterweight, nor had he impressed in recent bouts against Peter Dobson and Rodolfo Orozco. Yet he gave Eubank – supposedly one of the best middleweights in the world – an almighty scare. Benn, who had never fought at either world class or middleweight, found the target time and time again. That Eubank won the fight on points, even though the stress of making weight alongside the gruelling nature of the bout resulted in a two-night stay in hospital, created the illusion that he still had more to give. After all, he had just won the biggest fight of his life, one witnessed by millions. However, had that version of Eubank instead been in against someone like Hamzah Sheeraz, for example, it now seems improbable that victory would have been his. Improbable, too, that he would have returned to camp barely three months later.
Which brings us to the present day. With his reputation buoyed by defeating Benn, and the promise of another £10m ($13m) payday, it should be no surprise that he opted to roll the dice again. Nor should his physical state. Seven months after his face had swelled under the strain of severe dehydration, at least six years removed from his peak, and weighing five pounds less than when he made his debut as a 22-year-old, it’s frankly incredible that Eubank heard the final bell.
The decline did not arrive overnight, however; it had been in the post for years.
