I’m the coach who turned Terence Crawford into an animal now I’m training Chris Eubank Jr for Liam Smith rematch

Chris Eubank Jr has left a former pound-for-pound legend in Roy Jones Jr to team up with the trainer responsible for sharpening the skills of boxing’s current pound-for-pound no.1.

Brian McIntyre is Eubank Jr’s not-so-secret weapon going into his grudge rematch with Liam Smith in Manchester, which is live on talkSPORT on Saturday. The American popularly known as ‘BoMac’ has helped turn Terence Crawford into a near-flawless fighting machine.

4

Eubank Jr was beaten by Smith in January and is now out for revengeCredit: Lawrence Lustig/BOXXER

It’s fair to say ‘Next Gen’ couldn’t have chosen to be part of a hotter training team in the sport, given Crawford’s punch-perfect demolition of his welterweight rival Errol Spence in July.

But for BoMac this is an even trickier test. Crawford was a slight favourite to beat Spence, whereas Eubank Jr is an underdog against Smith, understandable given ‘Beefy’ shockingly inflicted a first career stoppage on him in January.

What’s clear is that, with respect to the hugely knowledgeable Ronnie Davies, this is the best trainer Eubank Jr has worked with in his pro career. BoMac, who has also coached former 130lb world champion Jamel Herring, is a lock to sweep the 2023 trainer of the year awards after Crawford’s KO of Spence.

The big question is how much wisdom and finesse he can impart on the 33-year-old Eubank Jr in the space of one fight camp, even with the whole Crawford team working with the Brighton middleweight.

BoMac’s dedication to the cause cannot be questioned: Eubank Jr revealed that he was back working in the gym with McIntyre the very day after Crawford’s career-defining victory a month ago.

He’s certainly an upgrade on Jones Jr who always seemed a bizarre choice: a sublimely talented fighter with no real proven pedigree as a trainer. The best boxers don’t always make the best coaches, as BoMac is proof.

His own obscure in-ring career ended with him sporting a 7-14 win-loss record. His highest-profile fight came when he lost a decision to the curious heavyweight attraction that was Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch – the so-called ‘king of the four-rounders’ – in 2004.

But that contest had one major long-term gain for BoMac: in getting ready, the Omaha Nebraska native sparred with a skinny teenager named Terence. The two actually grew up on the same street and bonded instantly.

4

McIntyre has joined the Eubank Jr campCredit: Getty

Midge Minor was the gym’s lead trainer but Crawford, 17 when he first sparred with McIntyre, wanted BoMac as part of his training team from the start. “I guess you could say I’ve been something like a big brother, a big cousin, an uncle to Terence,” BoMac told The Athletic in 2020.

The pair have been inseparable during Crawford’s rise to becoming a three-weight world champion, the switch-hitter proving himself the greatest boxer of the post-Floyd Mayweather Jr era.

But while the laidback, softly spoken BoMac rarely tries to grab the limelight, his life has been far from a fairytale. In his youth McIntyre once threw a fellow kid through a glass door, stole shoes and even shot at a cop in one skirmish with the law.

4

BoMac formed an incredible bond with CrawfordCredit: Getty

BoMac found salvation at Nebraska’s CW Boxing Club – “or else I would still be in prison somewhere,” he said. Yet there remains a fiery, competitive side to the trainer.

Spence’s trainer Derrick James, who also works with Anthony Joshua, took an uncharacteristic pre-fight shot at his fellow coach when he said that BoMac – built more for comfort than speed – “hasn’t missed a meal in years” and accused him of jealousy over James’s higher profile.

BoMac got his revenge in the ring, however, as the masterplan he and Crawford put together of taking away Spence’s jab – causing him to overreach and landing fast, vicious counterpunches – worked an absolute treat from the second round onwards.

“He’s basic. Look at all of his fights,” said McIntyre of Spence. “All of his fights he starts with a jab and he’ll hardly bring his feet with him when he goes to the body, right. So he got a good jab… but you can’t be still. Just make sure you have some room to work.”

4

Eubank Jr is looking to avenge his first career defeatCredit: Getty

Now, McIntyre is working with Eubank Jr on his own mission for revenge – the first time the son of the UK ring legend has had a rematch and a chance to avenge a loss in his career.

At the very least Eubank Jr, not someone often described as ‘humble’, sounds suitably impressed by BoMac’s body of work and is ready to listen. “I can’t question anything he’s telling me because the proof’s in the pudding,” he told Sky Sports of his trainer’s record. “It’s a new lease of life. A new challenge.”

Certainly after some curious choices – having his father as his lead trainer for early parts of career and this recent stint with Jones – Eubank Jr has finally found a sharp boxing mind. But even if BoMac can bring the level of forensic breakdown he did on Spence to Liam Smith, there are no guarantees.

Plenty of fighters have sought out the trainer of arguably the best fighter in boxing in the hope that the magic rubs off. Think Ricky Hatton teaming up with Floyd Mayweather Sr or several fighters going to Virgil Hunter when he was working with Andre Ward.

It does not always work out. BoMac himself knows this as he was brought in as a late gun-for-hire to help Amir Khan against Kell Brook. It’s safe to say that that fight did not go according to plan.

However Khan was, to use the cruel boxing term, damaged goods by then whereas the better preserved and always in-shape Eubank Jr should have more left in the tank. He has a world-class trainer now, it seems, but this would’ve been a brilliant change at 23 rather than at 33.

BoMac has been a crucial part of the Crawford team that has gone 18-0 in successive world title fights over the past nine years. But the challenge of helping Eubank Jr get back to winning ways will be among the toughest tests of his career so far. 

Listen to live and exclusive radio commentary of Chris Eubank Jr vs Liam Smith on talkSPORT on Saturday.