Chris Eubank announced his retirement from the ring in October 1995. He made a quick comeback in 1996, however, defeating Luis Dionisio Barrera and Camilo Alarcon. After Steve Collins withdrew from his WBO super-middleweight title defence against Joe Calzaghe and unexpectedly retired in October 1997, Calzaghe was matched against Eubank for the vacant title with eleven days notice. Eubank had been scheduled to box at light-heavyweight on the undercard. Eubank was knocked down twice and lost on points to Calzaghe, but saw his popularity rise as a result of managing to finish the fight against his more fancied opponent. Eubank then added
Chris Eubank Jr. (12-3, 4 KOs) was his opponent. Eubank dropped Horváth four times, stopping him in round 6. This was Eubank's eighth straight stoppage win. On the Saunders vs. Blandamura undercard on 26 July at the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester, Eubank stopped Croatian journeyman Ivan Jukic (19-2, 12 KOs) after just 2 minutes and 40 seconds of the opening round. On 15 September 2014, Frank Warren announced that Eubank would challenge fellow unbeaten British rival Billy Joe Saunders for his British, Commonwealth and European titles on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs. Dereck Chisora II on 9 November at the ExCeL