Chris Eubank Jr. blasts ‘scumbags’ during press conference, Frank Warren threatens legal action

Chris Eubank Jr. laid into Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn, and almost every other promoter in boxing Wednesday afternoon.

Eubank faces Kamil Szeremeta on the undercard of the upcoming Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol pay-per-view in October, but at the London press conference for the event, Eubank’s harshest words were for boxing promoters Frank Warren, Kalle Sauerland, and Eddie Hearn.

Back in July, the former IBO super-middleweight champion signed a promotional deal with Boxxer, eschewing some of the bigger promoters in the sport, and when asked about it, Eubank didn’t mince words.

“Why Boxxer? Because every other promoter out here is a scumbag,” Eubank said. “That’s why. You’ve got Frank Warren behind me, he’s been lying and cheating his way through boxing for the last couple decades, sued me for a couple hundred thousand a few years ago, so obviously I was never going to go with him. The guy is a scumbag.

“Kalle Sauerland [Eubank’s former promoter] had me locked up in a terrible contract for the last few years, squeezing money out of me at every opportunity. Scumbag.

“Eddie Hearn, Frank Smith, they did everything they could to try and make this fight against Conor Benn still go ahead after knowing that he was on steroids. Scumbags.

“I would say the only promoter that I know for sure isn’t a scumbag is his excellency Turki Alalshikh. This is a man who isn’t trying to take money from fighters. He isn’t trying to use lawyers and accountants to lock fighters up in slave contracts.”

Alalshikh is Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, and has invested significant funds into boxing in recent years, a move which his detractors claim serves to sportswash the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the global stage.

Unsurprisingly, Warren — who was in attendance along with Hearn — did not take kindly to Eubank’s comments. Warren previously promoted Eubank and later sued him for breach of contract, and the British promoter said he’s ready to get his legal team involved again for Eubank’s inflammatory statements.

“The bottom line of it is, it was very simple, he was sued by me for a legal breach of a contract and I was successful in suing him and he paid substantial damages,” Warren told talkSPORT after the press conference. “What he can’t accept is what’s legal and what’s not. And as regarding what he’s just said, I’m going to keep it short and sweet: he’s gonna get sued again for the comments that he’s made publicly...

“He will be sued and he will have a problem over that and anybody else who says it, they can get in that queue.”

**UPDATE**

A few hours after the press conference, Eubank released a statement apologizing and retracting his comments. Warren simultaneously released a statement to the retraction, accepting Eubank’s apology.

“Following today’s press conference for the historic Riyadh Season event on October 12th, I would like to retract my inaccurate statements and offer my apologies to Frank Warren, Eddie Hearn and Kalle Sauerland,” Eubank said. “I now wish to focus purely on boxing and preparing for a huge fight in Riyadh next month.”

“I accept Chris’s apology and retraction. I too have said things before and apologize to him also if any criticism of him has upset him in the past,” Warren stated. “I look forward to seeing him compete on this huge Riyadh Season card. We look ahead to some potentially massive bouts in the future.”