One thing Chris Eubank Jr. knows for certain is that nobody can accuse him of being a quitter.
That is one way the cocky British middleweight has been able to rationalize his disastrous fourth-round knockout loss to Liam Smith earlier this year at AO Arena in Manchester, England.
The two fight tonight in a rematch at the same venue.
Eubank has repeatedly pointed out that he would have been able to continue against Smith had referee Victor Loughlin not stopped the fight—a silver lining to what was his worst night in professional boxing. Indeed, after Loughlin waved off the bout, a still wobbly Eubank was seen immediately charging after Smith.
Even Smith’s trainer, Joe McNally, had to hand it to Eubank, telling veteran reporter Steve Bunce that he saw no quit in Eubank’s eyes.
While Eubank may view such doggedness as a given for himself, as a prerequisite for fighting in general, he is disturbed by those who seem to have a habit of violating that most sacred of boxing credos.
In a recent interview, Eubank seemed to take an especially hard dig at compatriot Daniel Dubois, the heavyweight who, last weekend in Poland, took a knee in the ninth round after absorbing a right jab from southpaw Oleksandr Usyk, the unified champion. At the last second, Dubois attempted to beat the count but the referee waved him off. Dubois’ manner of conceding the fight—one where he had Usyk, in the fifth round, bowled over on the canvas from a body shot that was controversially deemed illegitimate—prompted accusations that he quit. (For what it’s worth, Dubois was the target of the same criticism several years ago when he took a knee against Joe Joyce.)
Eubank did not explicitly name Dubois in his invective but it is clear that is who he had in mind.
“I think that was evident to everybody to see,” Eubank said of the resolve he showed after getting stopped by Smith in an interview with BBC 5 Live Boxing. “That’s how it should be. And it’s a shame these days that you have so many fighters who are willing to just give up, that are willing to take a knee, that are willing to quit on their stools, that are willing to, you know, not fight tooth and nail to win. It’s becoming a common thing these days. You’re seeing these guys, they’re looking for a way out when they get hurt.
“I’m not looking for a way out, I’m looking for a way in. ‘What have you got? Test me.’ See if you can really, really break my spirit because it has never been broken before.”
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.