There’s more than just bragging rights on the line when Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn step into the ring on April 26.
Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn was already going to be a ferocious contest, and that was before the 34-3 Eubank slapped ‘The Destroyer’ with an egg during their pre-fight presser in February.
Yet the two iconic British boxers are far from the only ones with skin in the game – with Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn and Boxxer CEO Ben Shalom also making a sizable wager on the side.
Chris Eubank Jr believes Eddie Hearn will abandon £1 million bet
Following Chris Eubank Jr’s controversial egg-slap in February, the two veteran promoters found themselves being jointly interviewed by IFL TV.
“We’re very good friends now,” teased Shalom, with Hearn adding “Yeah, we’re great friends” – just as the interviewer suggested that they place a sweet £100,000 on the result of Eubank Jr vs Benn.
“Whatever you want, more if you want,” Hearn replied, with the wager being eventually upped to a whopping £1 million – to which both promoters agreed.
In response, Boxxer’s Eubank shared a video message to his social media pages: “Million quid, ey? Okay, let’s find out if you’re a man of your word, or just a lying hype job.”
Whilst we’ve still got several weeks to go before Eubank Jr and Benn lock horns inside the ring, the former is already expecting the Matchroom boss to find some way out of this wager.
“Waiting & wondering how long it will take for Eddie Hearn to try & weasel his way out of the £1M bet,” wrote Eubank Jr on X earlier today, adding that “The silence is deafening.”
Hearn and Shalom’s wager might add another layer of drama to the event, but that’s not to say that everyone is happy with the fact that two promoters are making such a gamble to begin with.
Speaking with IFL TV, Gareth A. Davies acknowledged that despite being good for clicks, it’s not something that fans (or rather anyone in the sport) should be encouraging.
“I don’t think that they should be allowed to do it based on licenses and all the things; I don’t think we should be really encouraging it. It’s a great sideline and a handy little headline to have for the YouTube channels… But I don’t think we should be encouraging these massive side bets.”
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Former rival reacts to Chris Eubank Jr being handed £100,000 fine
In response to the egg-slap, Chris Eubank Jr was fined £100,000 by the British Boxing Board of Control; a move that former rival Liam Smith argued was justified – if not slightly hilarious.
“You know what, stuff at press conferences is s—bag material,” he told TalkSport: “But with it being an egg and we all know the situation of what the egg was for, they were trying to use the first outcome of it was eggs, of the failed drug test.
“So I just think with it being an egg, it was quite funny. If it was a water bottle or anything else, I’d just think, you s—bag. It was an egg, and we know the situation behind the egg, so I thought it was quite funny.”
Smith shared that he wasn’t surprised that Eubank had been fined over the incident, especially since both he and Eubank Jr had been fined over ‘unsavory words’ back in 2023.
“Yeah but not surprised. I got fined a lot of money myself for the press conference with Chris, so I didn’t expect nothing less to be honest with you – I just hope the money goes to good use.”
Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn is scheduled to go down from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, April 26.