A real sense of relief that the fight is finally here flowed through this afternoon’s Chris Eubank Jr and Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan press conference.
________________________________________________________________________________
After watching the full presser ahead of the two men’s clash on December 12th, here’s five quick takeaways from what went down today:
Bluff Calling
This was the first time the two guys met after years of Twitter abuse, back and forth. At one point Eubank said he would not address O’Sullivan as ‘Spike’, but rather by his first name of Gary.
Two minutes later he addressed him as ‘Spike’ and the Irishman was quick to point this out that he thought he was going to call him ‘Spike’, bringing about a warm chuckle from everyone in attendance.
Eubank Sr (English) Not Showing Up
Former conqueror of Chris Eubank Sr, Steve Collins turned up today, but there was no sign of Eubank Sr.
With news of Eubank Sr having joined ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me out Of Here’, perhaps the father of young Eubank Jr was simply unavailable, or as some may have construed, did not want to entertain any potential mind games from his old rival Collins.
Whatever the case, it seemed advantage O’Sullivan in the mental warfare department.
Attempted Banter From Eubank Jr
Rather amusingly at one point Eubank Jr pointed out that O’Sullivan looked like an evil character from James Bond, bringing about a few laughs.
At another point he looked to engage O’Sullivan, who he thought was been rather quite compared to his Twitter activity in the past, only for O’Sullivan to come to life towards the end of the presser, perhaps to the unexpected displeasure to Eubank’s earlier attempts to start-up some trash talk.
Andy Lee’s Name Coming Up
At one stage O’Sullivan head trainer Paschal Collins brought up a recent interview on IFL TV where Irish world champion Andy Lee made certain comments in relation to his fight with Billy Joe being a more credible fight, compared to Eubank Jr vs O’Sullivan been a more of hype fight, with the phrase been used at the time as “Starbucks boxing.”
Some back and forth ensued from Paschal Collins and Eubank Jr’s assistant coach Adam Booth, with the comments seeming to spark some genuine concern from the otherwise usually cool, calm and collected Booth.
A possible beginning of the mind games between the coaches? Perhaps.
No Face Off
Probably the most noticeable thing to be taken away from today’s presser was Eubank Jr’s refusal at the end to have a face off with O’Sullivan, due to previous antics by ‘Spike’ in press conferences last year, where he kissed a certain Anthony Fitzgerald on the cheek prior at a pre-fight press conference.
O’Sullivan clearly wanted the face off, but Eubank Jr flat out refused. Could this be a mental one up for O’Sullivan a month out from the fight?
Quite possibly, but time will tell.
The post 5 Quick Takeaways From The Eubank Jr Spike O’Sullivan Presser appeared first on %%Boxing News and Views/%%.
