Once the entire cheesecake Harlem Eubank has been enjoying since Friday night has been devoured, he will go back to the gym and begin training camp with the belief and intensity that a fight with Conor Benn will occur on April 26.

The dessert – so decadent that it costs around 10 dollars for a tiny portion – was waiting for the 32-year-old welterweight in the dressing room following his one-sided stoppage victory over Tyrone McKenna last weekend. Eubank, 21-0 (9 KOs), has so far enjoyed every mouthful. 

It signified the start of a four-day period of gluttony that he permits himself, and always relishes, after every fight. It’s not uncommon for boxers to indulge in such a manner following the torturous process of making weight. Training for a fight that surely won’t happen is rather more unusual, however.

For it is not he but his cousin, Chris Eubank Jnr, who is currently locked in to fight Benn at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 26. It’s a fight that is garnering rampant publicity and one that has long been in the making.

It was October 2022 when Junior and Benn were supposed to collide in a contest manufactured from nostalgia – Chris Eubank Snr and Nigel Benn, Conor’s dad, shared two violent duels in the '90s – only for it to be canned at the 11th hour when news of Benn failing two drug tests came to the fore.

Senior, Harlem’s uncle, has long been opposed to the idea of his son fighting welterweight Conor – believing the disparity in weight makes it an unfair and dangerous bout. Junior, a big middleweight, agreed to fight at the alien catchweight of 157lbs back in 2022 and this time signed a rehydration clause that means he can only put on 10lbs between the weigh-in and the opening bell. Uncle Chris, who advises Harlem, remains convinced that the fight will not occur.

“Anything can happen at any time in the sport of boxing and if you stay ready, stranger things have happened, so I will continue – after my four days of eating what I want – to be prepared for that fight on one week’s notice,” Harlem explains to BoxingScene. He sounds serious, too. “Should it come up, I’ll be ready for that opportunity, and I’ll be ready to go and do what I’ve always said I would do.

“This is what I say about the fight even when we’re told it’s a done deal,” he continues, “I was supposed to be on the undercard the last time [October 2022] and you think it’s going to happen, three days out, then boom, the script is flipped. It was a lot closer then than it is now. 

“I’m just going to make sure that I’m ready to go on one week’s notice.”

Harlem accepts it sounds ridiculous. After being told that he will become boxing’s ultimate Nostradamus should it come to fruition, he laughs. “Senior is the Nostradamus,” Harlem stresses. “I’m just working away and staying ready to go but Senior seems to be three, four, five steps ahead of everyone else at the moment.”

Training hard for a fight that probably won’t happen is nothing new for Harlem. He spent much of last year doing the same: After defeating Timo Schwarzkopf in November 2023 he looked ready for lift-off only for a proposed bout with Adam Azim to come to nothing and no other serious rivals to materialize. Through it all, Harlem went to the gym every day and managed to replicate the effort of a fighter with a date to aim at. He reckons he completed three-to-four training camps in such a manner.

So, while the outside world saw a fighter only in stagnation, Eubank was honing his tools and putting his time to good use. Thus, when McKenna came along, there was only going to be one outcome.

“I’ve been waiting for the right time to show it and deliver it with the performance,” Harlem says. “Since I came into boxing, I’ve lived it, I’ve been in the gym meticulously, so I’ve really been developing my craft to a point where if I get called into a big opportunity, I know I’m ready. I think it’s going to start to show now in the performances. Last year was a tough year. I was putting in the work, not only developing the craft but, when you’re preparing for a big fight, the intensity is different; I had to do that, over and over again, last year. I know that this year it will all pay off.” 

Should it not be Benn next for the Englishman, he has plans to move towards world titles when, he hopes, he will be able to contest one at the American Express Stadium, home of Brighton and Hove Albion, the same soccer club that Harlem represented as a teenager.

“I played for the academy, under-12s to under-16s. I got released at 16, continued playing football for a year and then I was like, ‘I’m done with football, let me try this boxing thing out.’ I actually started boxing at 14, while I was still playing for the club. I went to have a bout somewhere up in London but my opponent pulled out in the end. I went to the changing room to have the game on the Saturday morning and all the boys in the dressing room were excited by me boxing, they were all asking me how I’d got on. My manager pulled me to the side and said I could not box and play for the team. At that point I stopped boxing, carried on playing football, but found boxing again at 18 years of age. 

“It’s almost like its destiny. It would join up all the dots and I’m taking one step towards it each time. It excites me.” 

Harlem is remarkably grounded for a man who is the nephew of Senior, the cousin of Junior – two of the most braggadocious characters to ever grace a British boxing ring – and the latest boxer to parade the famous surname in front of millions on television.

Yet it is Sebastian Eubank, Junior’s brother and Harlem’s cousin, who remains the most influential to his development. Seb, as he was known, was swimming in Dubai in July 2021 when he suffered a suspected cardiac arrest and drowned. It was days before his 30th birthday.

“He’s one of my biggest motivations in the sport, he was someone that backed me from the beginning and believed in me and always let me know that he was there supporting,” Harlem explains after expressing his gratitude for the opportunity to talk about a cousin who was always more like a brother. “He had the vision of how far I could go in the sport. He was one of the big positive influences for me to really take it seriously and strive for the top. When I go out there and deliver, I know that he’ll be watching over and he’ll be proud. When I was in the dressing room after and before, I do feel his energy and his presence; I know he’s always close to me. That adds a lot of strength to me as I go into battle. It’s a big driving force in heading to the top of the sport.”

But before he gets to the top, fights Conor Benn, and is the star attraction at his local football stadium, he must first conquer the cheesecake. “It’s a New York-style, plant-based one, but you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference,” Harlem says with obvious delight. “My missus got me the full cake. It’s usually, like, £7 a slice, but I got the full cake, the full shebang. I’ve been working my way through it. None of it will go to waste.”

Matt Christie, a lifelong fight fan, has worked in boxing for more than 20 years. He left Boxing News in 2024 after 14 years, nine of which were spent as editor-in-chief. Before that, he was the producer of weekly boxing show “KOTV.” Now the co-host of ”The Opening Bell” podcast and regularly used by Sky Sports in the UK as a pundit, Matt was named as the Specialist Correspondent of the Year at the prestigious Sports Journalism Awards in 2021, which was the seventh SJA Award he accepted during his stint in the hot seat at Boxing News. The following year, he was inducted into the British Boxing Hall of Fame. He is a member of the BWAA and has been honored several times in their annual writing awards.