Chris Eubank Jr: I was gang enforcer and had fights in car parks before going home to a £1million mansion each night
CHRIS EUBANK JR says he was once a gang enforcer on the streets by day before returning home at night to a £1million mansion.
Eubank Jr is the eldest son of British boxing great Chris Sr – a superstar of the 1990s who fought for huge sums.
The son-of-a-legend was privately educated and grew up with his two brothers and sister in a mansion in Brighton.
But Eubank Jr was living a far different life away from home – getting into fights and trouble on the streets.
And his double life was exposed when one now-infamous underground carpark brawl found its way online.
In the grainy footage, Eubank Jr beats up a rival gang member, even STOMPING on him.
Fortunately for the current middleweight contender, he found an escape through the same sport which made his dad a household name.
Eubank Jr told rapper Castillo for The Main Event: “I don’t know how it happened, but I was a street kid.
“I was a road man that was going home to a £1million mansion every night. It doesn’t make sense.
“It doesn’t make sense but that video in the car park, I was doing that every other week I was in a scrap like that. I was an enforcer in a gang in Brighton.
“At 15, 16-years-old everybody’s doing stupid s***. It’s just what you had to deal with or what you are as a kid. You don’t know better.
“That’s one of the reasons why I ended up moving to Las Vegas to get away from that scene, to get away from that lifestyle.”
Eubank Jr moved to Vegas to learn the ropes as a boxer having found his calling as a fighter on the streets of Sussex.
He said: “I loved the competition. I love the challenge.
“I have a guy in front of me and he’s trying to take me out and I’ve been trying to take him out.
“And who’s going to get to it first? Who’s going to land that first punch?
“That was always just sexy to me. And it just turned me on. I don’t know why.”
Eubank Jr had an amateur stint in America before returning to Brighton to turn professional.
He has since gone onto challenge for world titles and made millions of his own through pay-per-view bouts.
I was a road man that was going home to a £1million mansion every night. It doesn’t make sense.
But Eubank Jr admitted to being tight with his money growing up – having seen his famous fighting father go bankrupt in 2005.
He said: “As sad as it is to say, boxers are not good with money.
“We are notoriously poor at keeping hold of what we make in these fights. My father was no different, he made millions.
“Millions and millions and this was in the 80s and 90s when millions was more than it is now. He still went bankrupt, he still lost everything, right?
“So I’m seeing that as a kid and I’m seeing me having to go from a multi-million mansion to living in a flat above a nursery as a young teen.
“I had to make that switch and I’m thinking to myself, ‘How has this happened?’
“So okay, yeah you can make money but it’s not just about making money it’s about keeping it. How do you keep it?”
‘Sky’s the limit’
Eubank Jr is eyeing huge fights against the likes of Billy Joe Saunders, Canelo Alvarez and Conor Benn, whose dad Nigel shared a rivarly with Chris Sr.
But first, Eubank Jr returns on Saturday in Saudi Arabia against Kamil Szeremeta and promises that big things are to come.
He said: “I’m excited to finally get in there and become part of that movement, because it’s a new movement.
“And fighting over there in Saudi it’s an amazing opportunity to go out there and build that relationship and then I’ll be able to go forward and potentially have these big fights maybe out there.
“Or maybe that they would put them on over here or out in the States because they’re putting on fights or shows in other countries too.
“So this is a very important introductory to that outfit. And I’m fighting a solid guy, man.
“He’s got a great record… he’s been in there with [Gennady] Golovkin and [Jaime] Munguia.
“He’s a solid dude and this is the type of guy that is a great fight for me to have coming off a year layoff.
“Get me back into the swing of things and after that, sky’s the limit.”