CHRIS Eubank finally turned up in Belfast yesterday for Saturday's WBO
super-middleweight showdown, and immediately delivered a withering
broadside to challenger Ray Close.
Eubank, having snubbed previous requests to promote the fight, did
nothing to lift the ill-feeling with promoters Frank Warren and Barney
Eastwood when he told Close: ''You're simply out of your depth. All of
you are out of your depths. Ray is a nice man, but I will beat him this
time. He's had his chance.''
Many experts thought Close was unlucky to be given only a draw when he
challenged Eubank for the title in Glasgow last year.
Warren attacked the champion for failing to help the promotion, and
complained that 25% of the tickets have still to be sold. He said:
''Chris has been very unprofessional and, with the way he has conducted
himself, deserves little respect as a champion.
''We have an Argentinian world champion on the bill, and he arrived 10
days before Saturday night's fight, which is the way a champion should
act.''
Barry Hearn, Eubank's manager, jumped to the defence of his fighter
for delaying his arrival in Belfast. ''I am in the hands of Chris
Eubank's trainers, who have said he must train until the last moment to
get the very best out of him.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article