Chris Eubank Jr is still determined to win a world title and is targeting the WBA belt held by Erislandy Lara; He insists his ambition and his drive remain undimmed: "If you don't genuinely obsess about being the best fighter you can be, you will never make it"
Friday 23 August 2024 16:07, UK
Chris Eubank Jr seems to have a gilded life.
The son of one of the UK's most famous fighters, enriched by his own boxing career, living and training in Las Vegas, playing poker at his leisure, he could be perceived to be a part-time fighter.
But such an assumption would be a mistake. He remains driven.
"All the things I've done, the money I've made, the fights I've won, it hasn't stopped my hunger for wanting to achieve more in the sport," he told Sky Sports. "I'm not hungry at a financial level.
"I'm hungry in terms of boxing, to go out there to win, to inspire the public, to inspire the kids coming up, to inspire myself. That's the most important thing for me.
"At the end of my career, am I going to be proud when I look back? Because I'm going to have to live with it for another 60 years before I go. Did I do everything I could while I was able to in my career?"
The poker is just a hobby. "Poker is the only thing outside of boxing that gives me that adrenaline rush," he said.
"You're in a big pot. You bet $50,000. You're bluffing the guy. You're waiting for him to either fold his hand or call. That heart-pump, that's the only time I can get that adrenaline rush that can replicate being in fight-or-flight mode like you are in a fight.
"Just the competitiveness of it, beating your opponents, outwitting them, outplaying them. Having that poker face that's something I've taken from the boxing and used it in boxing. You never know if I have good cards or bad cards. I'm completely stone-faced when I'm in the middle of a hand, just like in boxing."
Eubank gives little away, within a fight, at a press conference, in the career decisions he makes.
"You can't get a read on me," he said. "That's a key part of it, not getting too excited, not getting too upset if things don't go your way, being balanced, being calm, always thinking about your surroundings. It's all very transferrable."
He will next fight Kamil Szeremeta, a former Gennadiy Golovkin and Jaime Munguia opponent, on October 12 but he is angling for a world title shot, with Erislandy Lara's WBA championship in his sights.
"That's definitely a fight that's of great interest to me. I haven't got a middleweight world title. I've always dreamed of having it and the fight's there. It's right there," he said.
"The name Lara is not the most appealing, no. But the world title is for sure. That's like a personal thing. Financially, there's way bigger fights out there, but having that world title that's another level."
It is, however, just one of his goals. He still wants "mega-fights" with the likes of Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.
Beating someone like Canelo might even see him outdo his famous father's accomplishments.
"It puts me on the path to being able to compete with my father's achievements," he said.
Monetary rewards, Eubank Jr insists, are not his primary motivation. "My passion and love for the sport, that's number one, that has to be number one. If it's not number one, you will never make it," he said.
"Because the materialistic drive, it will never last because there are times when things get too tough, too painful, too much sacrifice. So you'll just give up if you're only doing it for money, if you don't love the sport."
Despite the apparent luxuries of his life now, that hasn't always been the case for him.
"Growing up as a kid, I went to private school, I lived in a mansion," Eubank Jr said. "I had everything."
But it would change. "My father, he had no money management skills. He went bankrupt. That was a horrible time in our lives. But one thing positive that can be taken from that is I saw that and I learned from that and I will now make sure that will never happen to me," he said.
"Into my teens, my father went bankrupt, that infrastructure was kind of gone and I lived a much more conservative lifestyle. My first ever apartment was above a nursery… I wasn't in a mansion but I'd had a taste of that lifestyle."
He wanted to recover that. "How do I get the big house? How do I get the cars? How do I get the clothes? How do I get that fame that I grew up with that I saw my father living? I want to get to that," was his mindset.
"I don't want to be living above a nursery my whole life. I've got to win, I've got to fight, I've got to train, I've got to dedicate myself so I can achieve what my father achieved and not only that but keep it, sustain it," he said. "That was a driving factor."
But he added: "If you don't genuinely obsess about being the best fighter you can be, you will never make it.
"That was the number one driving factor for me becoming what my father didn't think I could become, becoming what no one thought I could become - which is a great fighter. Secondary was I want that lifestyle. I want to be somebody. I want to continue my family name."
Watch Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium live on Sky Sports Box Office on September 21.
