One of the last events on the Black History Month calendar saw the Sports Society welcome world champion boxer Chris Eubank Jr, who spoke to a virtual audience of Eton and partner school students.
Mr Eubank told us about his childhood in Brighton, where he was shielded from seeing his dad’s boxing career, and only found out about his prominent position in the sport from a Nigel Benn VHS tape at a sleepover when he was 12! He was grateful for his upbringing and education, he reflected but remembered that he sometimes got into fights after school. Once he began to train regularly in the boxing gym, he knew that the sport would be his passion above all else.
He moved to Las Vegas when he was 16 and experienced his first 10 amateur fights there. Whilst he received a university offer, he instead chose to continue his career in boxing. Moving to the USA was a new challenge, he explained, with particular pressure in his early years because of his recognisable surname.
When asked by a member of the virtual audience about his favourite fight, he recalled the fight with Nick Blackwell as one where he was most aware of the potential of seriously harming an opponent.
Mr Eubank also spoke about Black Lives Matter, noting that it was amazing to see Black-owned businesses and the Black community flourishing in such a way. He explained that his ambition post-boxing is to teach Black history in schools, hoping to alleviate for others some of the isolation he felt as a Black boy at school.
