“They are paying me a separate fee to restrict my weight gain and rehydration,” Chris Eubank Jr. said to The Guardian a few days back. “I was never going to do it for free.” But turns out, agreeing to the weight terms has proven costly for him. Before, he’d said that he’s been doing this [weight cuts and boxing] for so many years, and that he knows his body. Despite being confident about it, just a day before the fight, Eubank Jr. failed to make weight on weigh-in day.

As the IBO middleweight champion, the bout with Conor Benn is at Eubank Jr’s weight class, 160 lbs, with a rehydration clause in place, limiting the fight-night weight of this non-title grudge match to 170 lbs. While Jr knows this, when he stood up on the scales, a mere 0.5 pounds extra (similar to an AA battery’s weight), cost him a hefty $500k fine, which was taken from his purse and added to Benn’s. Obviously, Conor Benn rose to this opportunity to give his opponent a hard time for this avoidable mistake.

 Conor Benn’s movie-line mockery cashing in on the weight miss

After missing the mark, Eubank Jr. could only throw an UNO reverse. He decided to call out Benn’s team instead, for what happened on his part. “Listen, it is what it is. If they are going to take half a million off me for being 0.5 pounds over the limit, then that’s just what it is. That’s the people that Eddie Hearn, Matchroom and Conor Benn are,” Eubank Jr. told Sky Sports after the ceremonial weigh-in.

“At the end of the day, weights have no relevance to what happens tomorrow night. I’m going to go out there and stop this guy. The rehydration clause is in play so I have to watch what I eat and drink, but all these things are set up to distract and displace and try to get me off track. None of it will work,” he had continued.

Still, Benn got a chance to get even with Eubank Jr. for for that egg slap during a promotional press conference ahead of their fight. He smartly mocked the 35-year-old by posting a short clip on his Instagram story. In the video, he sat with his phone in one hand and played a dialogue from the movie Jerry Maguire. He repeated the line right after playing it.

“Show me the m***f**ing money!” said The Destroyer, referencing the financial gain he received, while also taunting the IBO middleweight champ for missing the 160 pound weight limit by such a short unit.

Now, how impactful the insult would be on Eubank Jr., just a day before the two lock horns, nobody knows. But, it sure has shaped the champion’s image in some way or the other. Benn’s camp hasn’t held back in bashing the breach of contract and sheer irresponsibility on Next Gen’s part. Not to mention the fact that if he bulks up more than 10 pounds tomorrow, he’d possibly need to pay $1 million more in fine.

Eddie Hearn eloquently insults Eubank Jr.

Turns out, Eddie Hearn, Benn’s promoter, had spoken to iFL TV before the official weigh in. “Chris is late,” he’d said pointing out that it was Eubank Jr.’s team who wanted to start the weigh-in early, later showed up late. With that start, Hearn already knew there was something up. Later, Hearn told Fight Hub TV, right after the officials announced the miss in front of everyone, that he had experienced no weigh-in more dramatic than this one.

Hearn said he didn’t expect such carelessness when the stakes were so high. “Chris Eubank missed championship weight. I mean, he’s the IBO middleweight champion of the world. His last 5 fights have been at 160 pound. He didn’t make it. It’s unprofessional. But it happens…It was obviously a costly mistake for him,” the Matchroom promoter said.

“And, he was close. But, he turned up late. During the period, where he had a bit of time, he didn’t really, in my opinion, get the right advice to, you know…He messed around his phone a little bit. Whereas really, probably a little bit of activity would have actually, might let him make weight,” Hearn continued.

So after all, to Hearn, it looked like Eubank Jr. was showing what he was doing to miss weight rather than make it. Speculations from fans even insist that the miss was pre-planned by the Sussex-born boxer. But it could be just that—a speculation. It is up to Eubank Jr. now to make or miss the fight-night weight capped at 170 pounds. Either way, the showdown is way deep into the making. Eubank Jr. has said that Benn is in for a big surprise, and he has no idea about the pain that’s in store for him. Do you think that’s true? If the weigh-in fiasco is kept aside?