Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn will pocket around £7.5m ($10m) each for their middleweight grudge match this weekend.
But Brighton star Eubank Jr is at risk of losing a large chunk of it if he misses weight at either weigh-in. The contract for the $20m fight stipulates that either fighter will be hit with a fine for every pound they are over the limit.
The number is understood to be in the high bracket of six figures so could easily escalate to over £1m. Eubank Jr and Benn will weigh in Friday morning away from the cameras and both must be on the middleweight limit of 11st 6lbs.
They will then stand on the scales at the Business Design Centre in London at 6pm on Friday but this is just a mock weigh-in for fans and TV. But on Saturday, both fighters must weigh-in again for real and cannot tip the scales more than 12st 2lbs or they will face significant fines. It is not known if that money will be handed over to the other fighter or just taken from their purse.
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Eubank Jr has already been slapped with a £100,000 fine by the British Board of Control for hitting Benn with an egg in the face at the announcement press conference back in February. He is appealing the decision and his case will be heard after this fight.
Both men have been warned about their conduct this week at pre-fight events ahead of Saturday's showdown at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The fight is being billed as ‘Born Rivals’ as it is being built on the rivalry of the pair’s fathers given Chris Sr and Nigel had two classic clashes in the 1990s. Yet it is still a contrived hatred which has been further tarnished by two anti-doping test issues for Benn for banned substance clomifene when they were supposed to fight in 2022 a the O2 in London.
Benn, who has always denied any wrongdoing and UK Anti-Doping’s case was dismissed by the National Anti-Doping Panel to clear him to fight in the UK again, has played up to the villain narrative since.
Eubank Jr’s father, Chris Sr, has spoken openly about how much he is against the fight happening and one of the reasons is down to the weight restrictions on his son. He has had his last four fights at middleweight but never with a rehydration clause attached.
Eubank Jr has also previously fought at the super-middleweight limit of 12st. The first fight between the pair was cancelled when an adverse analytical finding in one of Benn’s Voluntary Anti-Doping Association tests came to light. The contracted weight for that bout was 11st 3lb which had also angered Eubank Jr’s father.
The Brighton boxer said he hit Benn with an egg so the would not forget the drug-test issues. The WBC claimed the reason for clomifene being in Benn's system could have been down to the consumption of eggs.
