Chris Eubank Jr rejects retirement claim: ‘Next year I’m going to have even bigger fights’
Chris Eubank Jr has rejected claims that he will retire after his second fight with Conor Benn.
Eubank is 36 years old and a veteran of 38 fights in his 14-year professional career.
But he has dismissed Benn’s suggestion that he will hang up the gloves after Saturday’s contest at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
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“This fight is not about closure, I’m fighting because that’s who I am,” Eubank Jr told Sky Sports News.
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Speaking ahead of their rematch at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Conor Benn claimed there was no gameplan in place for the first fight and has vowed to avenge the defeat handed to him by Chris Eubank Jr.
“I’m a fighter. It’s all I’ve done since I was 14 years old. Do I need to put my body through all this, do I need to fight more? No. I’m financially free, I have been for many years. But it’s my life, it’s my passion.
“It’s what inspires me to wake up and go hard every single day and for as long as I have that fire inside me. I’m going to keep stepping into the ring.
“It’s not any one fight, or any one training camp. It has to be a lifestyle. You have to wake up after a fight thinking: ‘When am I back in the gym?’ If you don’t have that sick mindset of going through a crazy fight and thinking: ‘Oh right, when’s the next one?’ then you’re not really a fighter.
“You have to have a little bit of a screw loose.”
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We’re diving into the most explosive boxing face-offs caught on camera including Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn and Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson!
Eubank not only intends to fight on, he plans on having major fights in 2026.
“Consistency, staying active, that’s always been a big part of how I’ve always been able to have longevity and consistency in my career. And I’m very happy that I’ve been able to have two massive fights this year and I think next year we’re going to have even bigger ones,” he said.
“Why not? Like I said, as long as that fire’s in me, I’m going to be in that ring.”
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Chris Eubank Jr says he’s ‘fresh and hungry’ ahead of his rematch with Conor Benn and gives his opponent credit for his performance in their first fight.
Topping the Benn fights suggests Eubank wants to box Canelo Alvarez or even Terence Crawford next year.
But he didn’t name a potential target. He told journalists: “I haven’t given it an ounce of thought. I don’t know what I’m going to eat, what I’m going to say after the fight, let alone who I’m going to be getting in the ring with next.
“I’m not wired like that, I’ve never been that type of guy, especially with a fight of this magnitude.”
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Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn shared an intense face-off ahead of their rematch in November.
He added: “My dad wants me to sail off into the sunset but you don’t do that. You do that when you’re on a downswing or you’re not physically able to keep doing what you’ve been doing, not after a huge win.
“The fight was such a huge occasion, such an amazing fight that I understood it had to happen again.
“People were demanding it so it never came into my mind to put it on the back burner.
As a fighter this is what we train and dedicate our entire career to, to reach this level and be in these type of events.
“You don’t just get there and do something else.”
