After Chris Eubank Jr. and Liam Smith’s boxing news conference became chaotic, Sky Sports issued an apology.
The two combatants’ recent Instagram direct messages came up in discussion. This sparked what has been characterised as a “homophobic and personal” argument between them.
According to talkSPORT, Eubank Jr. remarked: “You slid into my DMs. I’m used to seeing girls in my DMs, I’m not used to seeing guys.”
Smith answered right away. He remarked, “Chris, you go on about girls mate. Has anybody in this room ever seen you with a girl?”
“Have you got something to tell us? Because you’re 33. Do you wanna tell us something? Because nobody in this room has ever seen you with a woman.”
Smith’s remark seemed to surprise Eubank Jr. He said
, “Listen, my private life is my private life. That’s irrelevant to the boxing, but I’m happy, I’m comfortable.”
However, Smith kept pestering Eubank Jr by asking: “Do you have something you wanna tell us?”
Eubank Jr snapped and said: “It’s a very personal question to ask me directly. You can slide in my DMs or you can do it right now.”
In this specific back-and-forth, Smith got the last word. He said that he is “not that type of way, mate” and that he likes women.
The argument seemed to be over at this point, but Eubank Jr. quickly infuriated Smith once again.
Eubank Jr stated: “If you wanna get dark and personal with it Talking about being gay and do I like girls? I’ve been told by multiple sources that you cheat on your wife on occasion.”
“So glass houses mate. Let’s just relax on the personal stuff. I’d rather be gay than a cheat.”
This didn’t sit well with Smith. “You haven’t got a missus to cheat on,” he said.
The discussion was then suddenly ended and resumed. After the press conference, Sky Sports host Anna Woolhouse expressed regret for the “offensive language” and “homophobic” comments made by the two fighters.
The news conference was later taken off from the Boxing YouTube channel of Sky Sports.
Eubank Jr. acknowledged that the verbal conflict had swiftly heated up when questioned about it. As cited by BBC Sport, he remarked: “Everybody reacts in different ways to getting ready to fight another man.”
“He’s so hellbent on trying to prove he’s not rattled that he just went off the rails and I had to put him in line. We both went there, it got personal. That’s OK.
“Boxing is personal, fighting another man is one of the most personal things you can do. So I get it.”