Six days before his fight with Conor Benn and with weight to cut, Chris Eubank Jr filmed himself eating steak with Nusret Gokce, aka ‘Salt Bae’.
The heavier fighter seems determined to troll his opponent and show off just how relaxed he is before the clash.
Meanwhile, Tyson Fury v Anthony Joshua is off (for now), and Ryan Garcia shared a story about a run-in he had with Gervonta Davis at a nightclub recently.
All of that and more is in this week’s Fight Talk.
Eu-banking on 60%
Eubank Jr hasn’t given up his cheat days before a family grudge match with Benn on Saturday.
The two men are due to fight at London’s O2 Arena on 8 October at a catchweight of 157lbs.
Benn typically boxes at welterweight (147lbs). In contrast, this is a big cut for Eubank Jr, who usually operates at either middleweight (160lbs) and super-middleweight (168lbs).
Despite that, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was Eubank Jr that needed to bulk – at least based on his recent social media activity.
As well as hanging out with celebrity butcher, Salt Bae, he filmed himself tucking into a burger last week.
And allowed himself a spot of birthday cake a few days prior too.
At least his dad isn’t looking after nutrition.
Benn, 25, has won all 21 bouts since turning professional in 2016, with 14 knockouts.
Nevertheless, Eubank Jr has repeatedly claimed in the build-up to this fight that he only needs to be operating at 60% capacity in order to win.
Could that prove costly? His former trainer, Roy Jones Jr has advised Eubank Jr not to sleep on Benn.
Either way, this is a fight steeped in British boxing history, continuing a bitter feud that was started by the two fighters’ fathers in the 1990s.
Whichever way it goes, we’re invested.
Sound and Fury
Is Tyson Fury still retired?
Will he be fighting Anthony Joshua?
We can’t keep up.
According to Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, the proposed heavyweight fight that had been touted for December is now off
WBC champion Fury, 34, had given fellow Briton Joshua, 32, an ultimatum to sign by Monday 26 September, later extended to Thursday 29 October.
It’s not clear what has caused the breakdown in communication. In the meantime, it’s the fans who are left feeling short-changed.
Chain reaction
Meanwhile, hype is building for a potential lightweight fight between Ryan Garcia and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
The undefeated boxers are considered two of the best in their division, but have yet to fight.
Last week, Garcia, 24, shared an incident on Instagram live, in which he claimed that he bumped into Davis in a nightclub recently. He says that the 27-year-old Davis responded to questions about a contract by grabbing his neck chain.
“I wasn’t worried about it. There are so many security guards there, I knew he wasn’t going to take my chain or do anything, really. He just wanted to seem tough,” said Garcia.
The feud has continued on social media this week. All we can do is pray to the boxing gods we eventually get this fight!
