Chris Eubank Jr has never lacked confidence. But working with Brian McIntyre, Terence Crawford’s trainer, boosted his confidence even more.
“They’ve been working with Terence Crawford for years and the results speak for themselves,” he said Sky Sports.
“Crawford is one of the pound-for-pound greats at the moment and that gives me a lot of motivation and a lot of confidence in the team I have.
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The new trainer of Chris Eubank Jr.
“What they do or what they’ve done, it’s tried, tested and proven at the highest level.”
Eubank Jr has dismissed Liam Smith’s claims that his new training set-up will make no difference to their rematch.
Eubank returns to Manchester’s AO Arena to box Smith again on September 2, live on Sky Sports Box Office. He was defeated by Smith in a stunning four-round defeat in January and before the second fight teamed up with McIntyre’s new trainer, who was nicknamed “BoMac”.
His opponent was not impressed, suggesting Eubank was too “egotistic” to listen to his trainer.
But Eubank replied: “Training is not about ego.
“If I pay money for someone to work with me, I listen. I’m not stupid. If I don’t listen to someone why should I pay? I have you? I don’t want to waste my time , I don’t want to waste other people’s time.
“So it doesn’t make sense to say anything like that. If I say you will train me, you will be my trainer, you will be my team, then I will listen.”
But he added: “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. there was no infrastructure.
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Chris Eubank Jr says it will be a ‘different kind of pressure’ when facing Liam Smith in their rematch against ‘someone who beat me’.
“Now that’s there and I can see the benefits for sure.”
In particular “BoMac” he knows “everything I’ve been told works”.
“I don’t have to second-guess anything I hear. That’s a big thing for me. I don’t want to think about ‘is that going to work, is that really what I need to do?'” explained Eubank.
“Yes, it’s because this guy has done it and it’s been working at the highest level for years. That’s why I trust these guys.
But he must recognize that time is very limited to make any radical new changes.
“It’s a short time to work with a team and a coach, four weeks, four and a half weeks,” he said. “They can’t make any crazy changes in a short period of time.
“What they can do is help me implement my gameplan and add things that they think will work. You mix everything, adapt me, strengthen me, put me in the right mental state, that’s what it takes .
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Liam Smith says Chris Eubank Jr is ’embarrassed’ after defeat in January but doesn’t believe his middleweight opponent has anything to worry him about ahead of their rematch
“I need a solid foundation to work on and if everything goes well then maybe this is the start of a good relationship – and I think it will.”
‘Eubank knows how big it is for his career’
BOXXER promoter Ben Shalom expects another Eubank Jr in the second fight.
“If Eubank Jr is what we saw against George Groves and has that toughness and has that ferocity that we didn’t see in the last fight, for whatever reason, he has a chance,” Shalom said.
“He knows how big this is for his career. He knows if he wins this fight, he’s going to be back in the big time.”
“I still think Liam Smith is the favourite,” continued Shalom. “He will be the most confident.
“A lot of people — the same people who probably said there’s no way Liam Smith can win the first fight — are now saying there’s no way Chris Eubank Jr. can win.
“Liam is quiet confident of course. I think the first fight we’re going to get 12 rounds and it’s going to be a back-and-forth absolute war. I can’t wait.”
Liam Smith fights Chris Eubank Jr at the AO Arena in Manchester on September 2, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
