Chris Eubank Jnr insists the crowd violence did not faze him at all during the fight against Avni Yildirim in Stuttgart.
Eubank Jnr overcame Yildirim with a third round knockout on Saturday but his victory was marred by the violence that erupted in the stands before the fight, where about 50 men from two rival Turkish groups were involved in a brawl.
However, the English boxer claims that the atmosphere he faced during the Billy Joe Saunders fight was much worse, claiming that Saturday’s hostilities were not an ‘issue’ for him.
Chris Eubank Jr celebrates winning the fight against Avni Yildirim with a third round knock-out
Violence erupted in Stuttgart ahead of Chris Eubank Jnr’s world title defence
Two rival groups of Turks waded into each other, fists, feet and furniture flying
Eubank Jnr said during his press conference following the fight: ‘Fighting in front of 15,000 Gypsies who are all rooting for Billy Joe Saunders, you can’t top that. Once you’ve been through something like that, this is… not a walk in the park but it’s not anything I was really fazed by.
‘I’ve been the bad guy on a number of occasions throughout my career and it’s not an issue to me.
‘It just makes me laugh because I walk into the ring, the crowd are booing and hissing and someone’s trying to throw something but then I walk out, and those same people even today, “can I take a picture, can I take a picture”.
‘It doesn’t mean anything. At the end of the day, boxing fans are boxing fans. If you perform, do what you are supposed to do and put on great fights for the fans, you can’t go wrong.’
The violence was extreme, with metal chairs being wielded as weapons or hurled at opponents
Blood was spilled during the brawl which came ahead of Eubank Jnr’s fight on Saturday
As a preliminary bout was getting underway on Saturday night, two rival groups of Turks waded into each other, fists, feet and furniture flying, as a massive, bloody brawl broke out at ringside.
Elements of Eubank Jnr’s protection detail, some allegedly drawn from a notorious immigrant gang, were said to be involved as some fifty burly men went to battle for no visible reason.
The violence was extreme, with metal chairs being wielded as weapons or hurled at opponents.
But despite all the violence and hostilities, Eubank Jnr still decided to show his patriotic side ahead of the fight as he walked out with the Union Jack in toe.
Eubank Jnr came out with the Union Jack in toe despite facing a hostile atmosphere
Chris Eubank claims he was ‘proud’ of his son after he came out with the Union Jack
And his father, Chris Eubank insists he was proud of his son for coming out with the Union Jack, describing him as a ‘trooper’.
Eubank said: ‘I asked Jnr whether he wanted to use the Union Jack to go out and I said it may actually cause trouble because there were a lot of patriotic Turkish people here and there’s been, obviously as we have seen in the last few days, a lot of controversies thrown up by one or two people.
‘So I gave him the choice, “I said what do you want to do, do you want to wear it now or just the hoodie or do you want to wear the Union Jack?”
‘And like a trooper, he used the Union Jack. I am very proud of that because it was his choice and he knew how volatile the crowd could have been.’
Eubank gave his son the choice over whether he wanted to walk out with the Union Jack