Chris Eubank Jnr has settled into his role as the fighter fans love to hate. He isn’t so sure that his next opponent, Conor Benn, is as comfortable with his detractors.

Three hours into the indefatigable Ariel Helwani’s livestream on his eponymous Ariel Helwani Show, Chris Eubank Jnr joined for a thoughtful segment on his relationship with boxing fans. 

Eubank will face off against Benn on April 26, a fight initially aimed for 2022 but canceled thanks to Benn’s positive test for the performance-enhancing drug clomifene. Benn blamed eggs, leading to Eubank cracking one over Benn’s face during the promotion. 

“I’m not even trying to build the fight up. It’s not about selling the fight; the fight’s already been sold,” Eubank told Helwani. “I was doing things and saying things that I just believed were right and had to be said, had to be exposed. That was just me.” 

Throughout the interview, Eubank was patient and smug, completely at home in his role as a heel. Rarely has a boxer smiled so relentlessly during a media segment. 

“The first time I got booed into an arena was against Billy Joe Saunders, 11 years ago. And it was a dark, harrowing experience. […] It takes a lot of getting used to,” Eubank said. 

Now he’s accustomed to the hate. 

“It’s fun. I enjoy it. I love the haters, I love the doubters. I love getting booed into arenas, and drinks flying, and seeing that anger in people’s eyes – I feed off that energy now, as sick as that sounds.”

What sets this fight apart, Eubank said, is that Benn is also a villain. Following his positive drug test, he may well have set the public against him, producing a heel-on-heel clash. But Eubank thinks there’s a difference in how the two are hated.

“The people who hate me love to hate me. It’s something that they’ve done for years and years and years, and it’s just a part of the event. […] For him, for Conor, people despise hating him. Because he had it, he was the guy who had all the support. And then he screwed it all up for no reason. For a quick shortcut in our first fight, he ruined it all. So people hate hating him.”

There’s also animosity between the two fighters, but when observing that, too, Eubank showed his brains. He pointed out that hating an opponent can lead them astray; they throw their game plan by the wayside in pursuit of a violent knockout. And it’s true – Deontay Wilder consumed himself with anger ahead of his second and third fights with Tyson Fury, leading to quick stamina dumps in each fight. Fury fought at a more measured pace, throwing more sensible punches, and scored two stoppages. 

Eubank doesn’t want to give Benn any power over him.

“Of course, I have disdain for this man,” Eubank said. “He tried to cheat. He did cheat! In our first fight, two and a half years ago. He took performance enhancing drugs. He was caught, and the fight got called off. So animosity is rife between me and him. But hate? Hate is a very dark energy. That’s a very consuming mentality to have towards somebody. I would never give anybody that type of power over me.”

Though he’s no longer burned up about it, Eubank still doesn’t understand why fans hate him in such numbers. He views his villainy as fairly tame. 

“If you’re talking about real villains, real bad guys,” Eubank told Helwani, “that’s the drug cheats.”