Watch: Chris Eubank Jnr hits Conor Benn in face with egg

Chris Eubank Jr literally left his bitter rival Conor Benn with egg all over his face as their Manchester face-off descended into bedlam.

With the two rivals going face to face to promote their grudge match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 26, an already heated press conference took a bizarre, farcical and then violent twist.

Benn, who tested positive for the banned substance clomifene in 2022, was cleared by the WBC in 2023 after it said an “elevated consumption of eggs” was a “reasonable explanation” for his adverse finding.

Eubank Jnr responded on Tuesday by secretly bringing a raw egg to the press conference before forcefully slapping Benn across the face with it. Benn, who was accompanied on stage by his father Nigel, was clearly utterly furious and had to be held back by security as a brawl almost erupted on stage.

Benn later wrote on X: “That’s the only shot you’ll land on me you f****** p****. 2 rounds you are finished @‌ChrisEubankJr.”

Eubank Jnr later sent his own message that read: “Apparently egg contamination was the reason for his two failed drugs tests. So I contaminated him with an egg.” He also posted a photograph of the yolk running down Benn’s cheek with the word: “Eggcellent”.

Benn had earlier said: “The reality is, I’ve been cleared three times by the NADP, by the WBC, by UKAD, people who are a lot smarter than you. I’ve been cleared.”

Their clash comes more than three decades after their fathers, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank Sr, produced two of the most memorable and watched fights in British boxing history. Eubank Sr beat Benn in 1990 for the WBO middleweight crown, before they fought to a draw in 1993 for the WBC and WBO super middleweight titles.

Even before the egg slap, the press conference had been fraught with tension, with barbs flying from both men and their promoters.

Eubank Jr began by suggesting he and Benn should be sat closer together, which the latter refused, saying: “I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, silly b****cks.”

When Benn’s promoter Eddie Hearn tried to intervene, he was shut down by Eubank Jr, who said: “Eddie, you know I don’t like you, right? So if you know that, what on God’s sweet earth makes you think I’m gonna listen to anything you have to say?”

Hearn initially thought that his fighter had been struck by a glass and warned of reprisals if the two came face to face again.

“I thought it was a glass when it smashed – the noise it made,” said Hearn. “Bits were flying everywhere. The world we live in today, it will go viral, people will think it’s quite amusing but I just tell you one thing: In the fight game, everything changes now. If you see Nigel Benn tonight, run.

“These people are not normal people. They don’t have a cup of tea and then forget about it and everybody calms down. I don’t know if we can do Thursday’s press conference because it will be attack on sight. It won’t be, ‘Have a sleep on it and calm down’. It wasn’t a slap, it was with an object on the eye. It’s unacceptable. If you want to play those games, then the fun really begins now.”