Chris Eubank Jnr opens up on dealing with loss of his brother and the one regret he has

Chris Eubank Jnr has revealed how Covid stopped him from attending his brother’s funeral as the Brighton boxer opened up on the emotions he has gone through from losing his sibling.

Sebastian Eubank suffered a heart attack while swimming off the coast of Dubai in July of last year and died aged 29. He had just had a son, Raheem, with partner Salma Abdelati a month before that.

Eubank Jnr, 32, explained how his father, former world champion Chris Snr, broke the news to him in a revealing and emotional interview with entrepreneur Steven Bartlett on his YouTube channel, The Diary of a CEO.

READ MORE: Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jnr could face off in potential blockbuster bout this year

“I never dealt with anything like that in my life,” said Eubank Jnr. “I told you, I’m not an emotional guy. The last time I cried I was 12 years old, the day I found out I cried for like two days straight.

“I had Covid when I found out, my dad came to my house, he woke me up and said, ‘Come outside’. I thought I’d done something wrong, he had a look in his face that something was wrong. I wasn’t sure what I was about to hear.

“My little brother Joseph, he lives with me, I have an out house. He sat us down and told us. I just started crying. It was one of the worst days of my life.

“It’s so crazy to think that someone is so healthy, he trained every day, peak physical condition can just have a heart attack and is gone. It still just blows my mind.”

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Sebastian Eubank (right), with father Chris Snr and brother Chris Jnr (Image: S Meddle/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Eubank Jnr’s pain was worsened by the fact he couldn’t attend the funeral in Dubai but his main regret is not seeing Sebastian earlier in the year when he made a brief stop off in the United Arab Emirates, where his brother lived.

“I had Covid and that meant I couldn’t make it to his funeral,” he said. “It was just crazy. I can’t get on a plane and fly to Dubai to go to his funeral. In the Muslim religion, they have to bury him as quickly as possible.

“I don’t believe in regrets but I believe what is meant to be will be and you should be happy with whatever happens in your life.

“I would say there is one regret in my life and that was the fact I hadn’t seen my brother for a while. I had to stop off in Dubai, I stopped off for a couple of days before I flew to this next destination and I didn’t want to see anyone.

“Nobody knew I was making this trip, I knew my brother was in Dubai but I didn’t go to see him. I stayed in my hotel room.

“That’s one regret I have in my life because that would have been the last time I saw him. It teaches you, you’ve got to appreciate, you have to be with the people you love as much as you can.”

Sebastian Eubank with his father Chris before his pro boxing debut (Image: Getty Images)

In the honest and open chat, Eubank poured over his career and life so far. The Brighton boxer is 32-2 as a professional and now looks set to face Conor Benn, the son of his father’s arch rival Nigel in a catchweight contest later this year.

But he also spoke about his past, including the time he almost wrecked his life by taking a baseball bat to school to get revenge on a kid who threatened him. This was before he moved to America to begin boxing.

He has his father’s disciplinarian style of parenthood to thank, though.

“I got myself into a gang when I was a kid,” said Eubank Jnr. “I was fighting, I was skipping school. The only thing that kept me in line was that my dad was waiting for me at home.

“That punishment stopped me from going even more overboard than I did. You can see me on YouTube street fighting in a car park in Brighton. Imagine what I’d have done if I had nothing to stop me? I would be in jail.

“I remember I went to college for a month or two before I moved to America. Some kid from the school opposite my college got my number as I had been fighting with his brother. He called me up and he said ‘Who do you think you are, wait till I find you’.

“I knew who the kid was because of his voice. The next day I went into school with a baseball bat in my gym bag.

Eubank Jr beat Liam Williams on points this year (Image: Action Images via Reuters)

“Lunch bell rang, I walked across to the other school to find this kid. When I say find him, I was walking in and out of classes looking for him.

“I thank God, the good lord above that I didn’t find him, that I didn’t see him. I walk into a classroom or see him on the football field then I take out the baseball bat and I hit him with it. Then [I’m] finished.

“One I could kill the kid and I’m in jail for the rest of my life, I would have been banned from going to America so my whole foundation, everything I learned going over to the States, having my first amateur fights, training with Floyd Mayweather and his father, that would have been washed away, I’d never have done it.

“That start was what built me up. Without that I would never have done anything in boxing. I now think ‘how stupid can you be?’ I thank God and my father for how strict he was.”

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