Chris Eubank Jr on Tuesday smashed an egg into Conor Benn’s face during a stare-down between the rival boxers in a chaotic encounter to promote their April 26 bout.
The left-handed smack was a not-so-subtle reference to Benn’s failed doping test that derailed their planned fight in 2022. Benn at the time said that his consumption of eggs elevated his testosterone levels.
It has been more than 30 years since the boxers’ fathers — Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank — met twice in the ring in one of Britain’s great rivalries.
Photo: AP
After Tuesday’s news conference, the sons faced off and exchanged words before Chris Eubank Jr pulled an egg from his pocket and hit Conor Benn, who had to be restrained by several bulky security guards.
The fighters, who are square off in a middleweight bout at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, later took to social media.
“That’s the only shot you’ll land on me,” the 28-year-old Conor Benn wrote on X along with an expletive. “2 rounds you are finished.”
The 35-year-old Chris Eubank Jr wrote: “Apparently egg contamination was the reason for his two failed drugs tests. So I contaminated him with an egg.”
In another post featuring a photo of Conor Benn with egg on his face, he wrote: “Eggcellent.”
Eddie Hearn, who is Conor Benn’s promoter, called Chris Eubank Jr’s actions “unacceptable.”
“The world we live in today — it will go viral, people will think it’s quite amusing, but I’ll just tell you one thing — in the fight game, everything changes now about this fight,” he told Sky Sports. “You don’t want to be backstage right now. If you see Nigel Benn tonight, run. These people, they’re not normal people. They don’t go and have a cup of tea and then forget about it and everybody calms down.”
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