Chris Eubank Jr has admitted he blew up to a career-high weight after more than a year out of the ring, blaming it on a huge buffet at the iconic Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
The middleweight contender finally returns to action on October 12 when he faces Kamil Szeremeta in Saudi Arabia on the undercard of the undisputed light heavyweight showdown between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. But he says he has had to cut more weight than ever before after gorging on the culinary delights of Sin City.
The Brit, 35, is based in Vegas and he says he tipped the scales last month at 190lb (13st 5lb), more than two stone over the 160lb weight limit for the middleweight division.
That is a very manageable weight cut for an elite athlete, but Eubank admits it is new territory for him.
“For the first time in my life this year I hit 190lb. I think that might be cruiserweight,” he told former rival George Groves on his podcast. “I don’t know how I did it and it was actually quite cool because was in Vegas, yeah.”
Groves asked if the renowned buffet at the iconic casino on the Vegas strip had played its part and Eubank agreed before revealing his favourite dishes from the buffet. “You’ve got to get the king crab legs with the melted butter. Steak,” he joked.
Not only does the Vegas lifestyle have its perks, but it also has provided Eubank with state-of-the-art facilities and quality sparring partners.
The Brighton native (33-3, 24 KOs) has fought just four times in the past three years, a period that has seen him avenge a defeat to Liam Smith after a blockbuster bout with rival Conor Benn collapsed due to Benn failing an anti-doping test.
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Eubank has relished the chance to work out at gyms owned by Top Rank and Floyd Mayweather to sharpen his craft.
He said: “It was interesting because I’d be getting into the ring at Top Rank and at Floyd’s with middleweights and their punches are just bouncing off me.
“And these are guys that fight at middleweight and I just wasn’t feeling anything and I was just throwing them around and I was like, ‘Wow, this is interesting.'”
Eubank’s inactivity prompted him to turn down a lucrative offer to fight unified super-middleweight king Canelo Alvarez, and he says his comeback fight against Polish hopeful Szeremeta (25-2-2) will prove whether he can still cut it at the elite level.
“That’s actually what a fight like this is for against Szeremeta,” he explained. “To make sure that I can still make the weight and be effective. At 35 years old, [I have] been out of the ring for a year, how’s that weight cut going to be? We’re going to find out.
“You don’t want to find out when you’re getting ready for Canelo, right? Or a big, big, name you want to know before you get into the situations. So I’m excited.”