Chris Eubank Snr’s battles with Nigel Benn and his bravery against Joe Calzaghe have become legend in British boxing.

But in his retirement, the flaws in the sport that made his fame are all too clear to Eubank.

On Carl Froch’s “Froch On Fighting” YouTube channel, Eubank heavily criticized promoters for allowing their fighters to undergo dramatic weight cuts and lose mismatches. He also explained why he is estranged from his son, Chris Eubank Jnr, who will fight Conor Benn on April 26.

Eubank, whose voice resembles the passionate philosopher more so than the former fighter, expressed dismay at every part of his son’s upcoming fight, beginning with it being at 160lbs. Eubank Jnr, a super middleweight from 2017 to mid-2019, began stripping back down to middleweight afterwards. Eubank Snr, who retired at 32, believes that it isn’t in his 35-year-old son’s health or best interests to endure a tough weight cut at his age.

But he sounded even more gravely concerned for Benn, who has said he wants to return to welterweight after his 160lbs summit with Eubank Jnr.

“Because I’m a dad, it means I’ve gotta be a dad also to Conor,” Eubank Snr said, displaying a sensitivity rare among human beings, much less boxers. “Conor is destroying his career, or it’s Matchroom, it’s the promoter, that’s destroying his career. Once you go up to 160, coming back down to 147, it doesn’t work.

“How do I know? I went up to 183, 184 to cruiserweight. I fought Carl Thompson. Let me tell you what, that was an assassination attempt. I let the promoter know that he was acting like a person who takes advantage of little children…”

Eubank frequently turned questions into his interviewer, Froch, asking him whether he thought the label for Eubank-Benn – “Fatal Fury” – was a coincidence, and to stand up for boxers and the sport.

Eubank pointed his most venomous ire at Eddie Hearn and other boxing promoters.

“It looks to me like Conor may be binded down with some sort of agreement,” Eubank said. “Why would he destroy his career? Three fights in three years.”

Eubank spoke forcefully and righteously, arguing that the current representatives of boxing are bringing the sport shame. It was hard not to think that his comments came from a place of giving boxing more credit than it deserved, defining pugilism by its best characteristics and not its worst that so often appear. His words were no less morally sound for their idealism, however.

More contentiously, Eubank will not be in his son’s corner for his fight with Benn. Eubank equates the fight to a crime, and supporting his son to being a bystander. He negotiated with the limits of parental love, calling unconditional support of a child even in the case of their bad or unlawful behavior “madness.”

“I support my son, I love my son,” Eubank Snr said. “But I’ll never be next to him in boxing, otherwise it will tarnish what I have been able to stand for.”