Chris Eubank Jr. slapped British rival Conor Benn in the face with an egg at their first face-off in Manchester on Tuesday.
The face-off followed a heated news conference to launch the fight, which takes place on April 26 in London.
The pair were set to fight in 2022 before Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) tested positive for performance-enhancing drug clomifene. The WBC later said that egg contamination was the “most likely cause.”
Benn has since been cleared to fight.
Heated words were exchanged from the start, with Benn saying “his dad don’t even like him” in reference to his rival.
Eubank Jr. (34-3, 25 KOs) and Benn will follow the footsteps of their fathers — Chris Eubank Sr. and Nigel Benn — who fought two classic bouts in the 1990s.
While Nigel was at Tuesday’s news conference, Eubank Sr. was absent. The trash talking was savage, with both fighters and promoters — Ben Shalom and Eddie Hearn — going at it.
“Chris can say what he wants. The bottom line is, his dad don’t even like him. You couldn’t even pay that man to sit in his corner,” Benn said.
Plenty was also made of the difference in weight, with Benn a welterweight and Eubank Jr. having fought at super middleweight.
The fight will be contested at 160 pounds, with a rehydration clause set at 170 pounds for the same-day weigh-in.
“Do you know what I just can’t take him seriously,” Benn said. “Just look at his career every time he’s stepped up he’s failed. This is the end of your career.
“I’m 28, you choose to fight a welterweight over [Hamzah] Sheeraz, Janibek [Alimkhanuly], [Carlos] Adames. Anybody with a world title. You’re going to get rendered unconscious by a welterweight.”
Eubank Jr. responded: “You guys sprung it on us about the rehydration clause. I like the challenge. When Eddie and Connor started demanding there was a rehydration clause for this fight, guess what I said? ‘Show me the money.'”
It was then the promoter’s turn to lock horns.
“You got spun around in these negotiations,” Hearn, who promotes Benn, said. “See that geezer on your right [Shalom], he got spun around like a little kid on a playground on a roundabout. And every time he went round I went ‘hello Ben, hello Ben.
“And he got you a good deal, but he knows what he signed.”
Shalom said: “He was paid to do this, Chris was paid to restrict his weight.”