Chris Eubank Jr has insisted that his failure to make the 160-pound middleweight limit for his showdown with Conor Benn will have ‘no relevance’ on the outcome of the bout.
The 35-year-old also hit out at his opponent – who attended the final face-off wearing a necklace with the words ‘not guilty’ – and his promoter, claiming the weight debacle was simply an attempt to ‘get me off track’.
Eubank Jr was hit with a £375,000 penalty after tipping the scales just half an ounce over the limit. He is now at risk of losing more of his £7million purse if he weighs over 170 pounds on the morning of the fight.
‘If they’re going to take a half a million for being 0.05lb off the limit,’ said Eubank Jr. ‘It has no relevance of what happens tomorrow, that’s just the people that Matchroom, Eddie Hearn and Conor Benn are.
‘They’re set up to try and get me off track. none of it will work. he’s in for a hell of surprise. he thinks he’s going out there for a hop skip and right hand – but he has no idea the pain (he’s going to get).’
Benn, fighting in Britain for the first time since the resolution of a two-year legal battle against his positive drugs tests, reacted to the news of Eubank’s weight failure by laughing on social media with the message: ‘Show me the mother******* money.’
On Friday night, he was even less sympathetic and stated his intention to dish out his own punishment at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
