Chris Eubank Jr: I Was Paid $***** For The Fight! The Night Before, Dad Finally Opened Up!

You're the first person I've really spoken to about this type of stuff. I was in hospital after the fight, lying there, I've got my mask on, thinking, "This is so bad. Get me the morphine, get me the morphine." I've got my family around me. Some of them crying. And I can hear everything that's going on. And then I hear the doctor say from the other room, "We have to operate on him now otherwise he's gonna die."

Chris Eubank Jr. (crowd cheering)

Chris, you haven't really spoken since that 12th round with Conor. How do you rate your own performance?

I was technically sound for the first seven rounds, but once the cut came, I was experiencing all the things that had been restricting me leading up to the fight. And I can hear my trainer, "You've gotta use the jab, Chris. Use your feet." I looked at him, I said, "I'm sorry. It's too late." Because I always knew there would be fights like this where you don't have anything left or you want to give up or you're hurt, but you have to fight through the demons, the issues, your restrictions. Because I wasn't willing to go the rest of my life knowing that I didn't give it my all. That lives with you forever. So the technicality of the sport was out the window. We are going to war.

Was Conor faster than you were expecting?

Yeah.

Was he stronger than you were expecting?

Yeah. But it was about who wants it more. My old man's there. I've got to show him I'm capable of great things. You know, we have been estranged for years.

But what caused that relationship to strain?

I sent him a letter and that broke him. You know, I, I get emotional thinking about this.

What did that letter say? (dramatic music) This has always blown my mind a little bit. 53% of you that listen to this show regularly haven't yet subscribed to the show. So could I ask you for a favor before we start? If you like the show, and you like what we do here, and you wanna support us, the free simple way that you can do just that is by hitting the subscribe button. And my commitment to you is, if you do that, then I'll do everything in my power, me and my team, to make sure that this show is better for you every single week. We'll listen to your feedback, we'll find the guests that you want me to speak to, and we'll continue to do what we do. Thank you so much. (upbeat music) Chris, you haven't really spoken since the fight, especially not in, in long form. So I guess the best place to start is just by asking you how you're feeling. That was pretty fucking crazy.

Fucking crazy is, uh, is, is, is pretty accurate. Yeah. It was, um, it was a fight that, I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting to be involved in. Um, I genuinely thought that, uh, I was gonna go in there, I was going to have my way with this kid. Blow him out of the water, you know? Watch him quit. Watch him, um, crumble under the pressure. That's really what I thought was gonna happen. And thank God that I was wrong. Because if that had happened, it would not be a fight that is now gonna be remembered forever. This is what I'm being told. This is what I'm hearing. This is what I'm seeing. "This is the best fight I ever saw." "This is the best event I ever saw." "This was amazing." For a fight to reach that level of love and, and respect, both fighters have to go through the fire. Both fighters have to do things that, um, it may seem superhuman. May seem like impossible. They have to go through that. They have to be true. And, uh, they cannot give up. And that's what we both showed on that night. Two men who were willing to die in that ring. That's what boxing is really about. And it's so rare to see these days, you know? We just saw over the weekend some of the best fighters on the planet right now. Devin Haney, Canelo, Ryan Garcia. You know, their, their fights were, um, underwhelming-