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Chris Eubank Jr: The rising son of boxing

Chris Eubank's son is impressively stepping out of his father's shadow after his first professional fight
Christopher Eubank Jr and his proud father. Photograph: Karen Robinson

Chris Eubank was indignant, and not entirely for show. I'd apparently caused offence by referring to him as "that guy next to you" when asking his son, Christopher Jr, about living in such a large shadow.

The audience was a small one, a few rows of boxing writers and a smattering of fans gathered in the foyer of Event City, Trafford Park, Manchester late on Saturday night after young Eubank had made an impressive professional debut.

An hour or so earlier, "Simply The Best" filled the hall. Junior vaulted the ropes, with a familiar swing of the legs. When the bell went, he paused, posed and stared across the ring at his selected opponent. It was eerie — and then he went to work.

He has the unmistakable ring smoothness of his father. He is economical, quick and confident, throws wickedly sharp left-hook counters and that trademark Eubank overhand right. But he is more fluid than his father, loose-limbed and relaxed, with little of the self-consciousness Eubank brought to British rings between 1985 and 1998.

What Junior also had was too much power, speed and movement for the selected opponent, a 25-year-old Lithuanian journeyman, Kirilas Psonko, who had won eight and lost 15. He barely threw a punch and folded under a withering blast in the fourth of six scheduled rounds.

For a flavour of Eubank's style, his last amateur contest, in June, is a decent guide. But he was always headed for the pros. "I don't want him boxing in the Olympics and I've advised him as such," Eubank Sr told the journalist Steve Bunce in July last year.

"We have a media, and the media gives you fame, but that fame is fake. Real fame is what Marvin Hagler earned, and Sugar Ray Leonard." Junior signed up to his father's philosophy that you need resilience in boxing, and you only get that the hard way, not through amateur medals, but tough times away from the limelight.

It is what his own father did to him, sending him to live with his mother in the South Bronx when he was 16. Eubank survived the drugs and crime jungle of New York's street academy, found boxing and returned to the UK to enchant us with his unique skills. He won world titles and went from villain to hero with his dignity in defeat, rather than the strut of his victory years.

He told Christopher to go to America, to "get lost" in the gyms there. "I'm keeping my son away from fake fame. It may not be pretty, but I want him to suffer, because it's the only way to make anything in boxing."

On Saturday night, after Junior had toyed with Psonko, his father repeated the struggle mantra. Christopher had accompanied him to Angola, where he has coached the national team, explored the delights of Cuba, the hardcore home of amateur boxing, and he was now ready to begin his journey in search of fame. It was a pretty good first step.

"It's in the DNA," he said later, sitting next to the proudest father in the building.

"It has been a long time coming and I am glad it has been done. Everybody was telling me I had to go out there and knock him out, but I wanted to enjoy the moment — which I did. I put on a show and wanted the fans to get value, which they did.

"There is a lot of pressure because of what my father achieved and everyone is expecting so much, but that gives me that extra drive in the gym every day to graft hard. I want to be able to prove I can become the same or better than my father." Eubank Sr smiled.

"People ask me 'Are you copying your dad?' It is in my blood. I have got royal blood coursing through my veins. I can't help myself doing what my father did. It is being around him every day and watching his fights. Being his son. It is just how I fight. I am an entertainer."

Dad, as so often in the past, had the last word: "I know the work he has committed to over the last seven years. I have given him nothing. I have only given him direction and he has had to do everything.

"He has had to suffer in Las Vegas, he has had to suffer in Cuba and suffer in Angola. With respect to my son, we have a livewire. He has world title potential. I cannot find any faults or flaws. He is far more advanced than he should be for the experience.

"I know the work he has committed to over the last seven years. I have given him nothing. I have only given him direction and he has had to do everything. I am his father and any right-minded father wants his son to be better than he was. This is something I truly pray for."

How good is Jr? Certainly, Junior looks great. He talks well. He has, as he says, the DNA. We will know sooner rather than later, I think.

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