Chris Eubank Jr: Joining new trainer Brian McIntyre not about ego | ‘Now I have an infrastructure’
Chris Eubank Jr will rematch Liam Smith on Saturday September 2, live on Sky Sports Box Office; Eubank explains how working with new trainer Brian McIntyre is benefiting him: “I didn’t have that element before, I just did what I wanted to do”
Chris Eubank Jr has never been short of confidence. But working with Brian McIntyre, Terence Crawford’s trainer, has heightened his self-belief even further.
“They have worked with Terence Crawford for many years and the results speak for themselves,” he told Sky Sports.
“Crawford is one of the pound-for-pound greats at the moment and that gives me a lot of encouragement and a lot of confidence in the team that I have around me.
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“What they are doing or what they have done, it’s been tried, tested and proven at the highest levels.”
Eubank Jr has dismissed Liam Smith’s claims that his new training set-up won’t make a difference going into their rematch.
Eubank will return to the AO Arena in Manchester to box Smith once again on September 2, live on Sky Sports Box Office. He lost to Smith in a stunning four-round defeat in January and ahead of the second fight has linked up with a new coach in McIntyre, who is nicknamed “BoMac”.
His rival is unimpressed, suggesting that Eubank is too “egotistical” to listen to his trainer.
But Eubank hit back: “Being trained is not about ego.
“If I’m going to pay money for somebody to work with me, I’m going to listen. I’m not an idiot. If I’m not going to listen to somebody why am I going to pay? Why am I going to have you around me? I don’t want to waste my time, I don’t want to waste other people’s time.
“So it makes no sense to say anything like that. If I say you’re going to train me, you’re my trainer, you’re my team, then I’m going to listen.”
But he did add: “It’s part of the game. For many years I didn’t have that element. I just did what I wanted to do. I trained when I wanted to train, I trained how I wanted to train. I didn’t have an infrastructure.
“Now we have that and I’m seeing the benefits for sure.”
With “BoMac” in particular he knows “everything I’m being told works”.
“I don’t have to second guess anything that I’m hearing. That was a big thing for me. I don’t want to have to think about ‘is that really going to work, is that really what I should be doing?'” Eubank explained.
“Yes, it is because this guy’s done it and it’s worked at the highest levels for many years. So I trust these guys. The camp’s been going great so far. I’m fit, feeling good. So everything’s on track.”
But he had to acknowledge time is too limited to make any radical new changes.
“It’s a very short period to be working with a team and a coach, four weeks, four and a half weeks,” he said. “They’re not going to be able to do any crazy changes in such a short space of time.
“What they will be able to do is help me execute my gameplan and add the things that they think will work. You mix that all together, get me fit, get me strong, get me in the right mental state, that’s what’s needed.
“I needed a solid foundation to work with and if everything goes well then maybe this will be the start of a great relationship – and I think it will.”
‘Eubank knows how big this is for his career’
BOXXER promoter Ben Shalom is expecting a different Eubank Jr in the second fight.
“If Eubank Jr is what we saw against George Groves and has that resilience and has that brutality back that we just didn’t see in the last fight, for whatever reason, he’s going to have a chance,” Shalom said.
“He knows how big this is for his career. He knows that if he can win this fight he goes straight back into the big time.”
“I still believe Liam Smith is the favourite,” Shalom continued. “He’ll be supremely confident.
“A lot of people – the same people who were probably saying there was no way Liam Smith could win the first fight – are now saying there’s no way Chris Eubank Jr can win.
“Liam will be quietly confident of course. I thought the first fight we were going to get 12 rounds and it was going to be a back-and-forth absolute war. I think we’ll possibly get a much, much better fight this way and I just can’t wait.”
Liam Smith fights Chris Eubank Jr at the AO Arena in Manchester on September 2, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
