LONDON - For much of Thursday’s final press conference on the third floor of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn, the two protagonists in British boxing’s longest running story, served up the sort of pantomime moments which have turned this into the biggest fight on these shores this year. But in a searing moment of honesty, Eubank Jr closed down Benn’s attempts to make reference to his obviously difficult weight cut by highlighting the sort of pain he has already had to face over the past few years.

The tragic death of his 29-year-old brother Sebastian, who drowned in shallow water at a Dubai hotel in 2021, rocked the Eubank family to its core and Chris Jr vowed to dedicate the rest of his boxing career to providing for Seb’s baby son Raheem, who was born just a month before his father’s death.

“Just focus on getting the weight off fat boy,” Benn, who will weigh in at a career highest on the scales Friday, had said by way of a closing remark to Eubank. “What’s weight?” replied his opponent, a former super-middleweight who will boil down to 160lbs for this fight.

“Everyone is always talking about this. Yes, the weight is painful; I’m in pain right now and I’ll be in even more pain tonight and tomorrow morning. “The question I ask myself is ‘what is pain?’ I have a 31-year-old brother buried in the desert in Dubai. That’s pain. I have his son Raheem, now three years old, who asks ‘why can’t I see my daddy? Why doesn’t he take me to school?’ That’s pain.” Eubank Jr also referenced the very public split between him and his legendary father, Chris Senior, who labelled him a disgrace for hitting Benn with an egg at their initial press conference earlier this year. He said: “My own father, a man I idolized for my entire life, doesn’t speak to me. We haven’t spoken for years. He thinks I’m a disgrace. These things are what pain is to me. If I can deal with all of these trials and tribulations then the weight cut and the rehydration clause, these are all things that are not an issue. They are not important.” Eubank and Benn were supposed to meet way back in October 2022 before the latter failed two VADA tests, which resulted in the cancellation of the fight. The Brighton man, now 35, had spent much of the build-up to that fight insisting he could beat Benn at just ‘60 per cent’, after the fight was made at 157lbs, well below his usual fighting weight. They will meet three pounds up this weekend and Eubank told Benn he missed his chance of ever beating him when the 2022 fight fell through. “This is about taking this kid out of boxing,” Eubank added. “We are not taking him lightly anymore. He should have taken the chance in the first fight when I was underestimating him, playing around and taking him lightly. That was his best shot but that’s gone because I have a duty to boxing, to the fans, to erase these guys from the picture.

“Whatever strategy and game plan these people have come up with, nothing will prepare them for the fire they will receive in a few days’ time.” Benn was in a less talkative mood. After months of build-up and an exhaustive training camp in Palma, Majorca, the 28-year-old just wants to fight.

“I’m not going to lower myself to Chris and go back and forth,” he said. “I’m excited to get in there and put my hands on him on Saturday night. “It’s always personal and I’m a very emotional fighter. It’s the only way I know. For me, yes his name is Eubank and I won’t be losing to a man whose name is Eubank especially not this man. I’m coming here to take his head off."

The event will be carried by DAZN PPV.