Chris Eubank Jr. recently unleashed a verbal assault in his most recent press conference for his upcoming fight against Kamil Szeremeta. In the interview, he calls out the modern-day boxing promoters as he claims that the promoters “lock” in fighters to long term contracts that they “can't escape for years and years”.
The comment came after Eubank was asked about whether or not he would sign with Ben Shalom’s BOXXER, to which he responded with a remark calling the promoters “scumbags” for which he later apologized for his outburst. In a later interview, Eubank expanded on his comments with One on One, by claiming there is no difference between modern day fighting promoters and Don King, who was infamous for exploiting fighters with contracts.
They're giving out disgusting contracts. Despicable contracts. The sad thing is boxers are not educated guys in general. Most of us did not go to great schools. Most boxers spent their time in the gyms.
Eubank also stated that he felt it was his responsibility to speak up about these issues, to fight for the fighters that are held down by the ludicrous contracts. Eubank stated that “they're giving out disgusting contracts. Despicable contracts. The sad thing is boxers are not educated guys in general. Most of us did not go to great schools. Most boxers spent their time in the gyms. So, they do not know about percentages and image rights and all the things that are going on in the background that boxers should be making money off which all the promoters are taking from. So many fighters have been screwed over by these promoters and will continue to get screwed over until people like me speak out and make people aware that these things happen, and you must have people that are, you know, working for your best interests.”
Eubank then linked these comments to his own personal experience with boxing promoter Frank Warren, who in the past had sued the boxer over breach of contract. In a later released joint statement by the boxer with his former promoter Warren, Eubank apologized for his comments about the promoter saying that he wishes to focus completely on his boxing from now on. The statement also included an acceptance by Warren to which he said “I accept Chris' apology and retraction. I too have said things before and apologize to him, also if any criticism of him has upset him in the past. I look forward to seeing him compete on this huge Riyadh Season card. We look ahead to some potentially massive bouts in the future.”
