Roy Jones Jr was once in the corner of Chris Eubank Jr, so knows well his chances of beating Conor Benn come April 26.
The American boxing legend took on the role of Eubank’s trainer in 2020, overseeing him beat Marcus Morrison, Wanik Awdijan and Liam Williams before coming up against Liam Smith and suffering his first ever stoppage defeat. The pair split before the rematch, which Eubank won via stoppage.
With Eubank’s long-awaited clash with Benn now set for next month, Jones has weighed in on the debate that the 35-year-old changed for the worse under his tutelage.
It was put to Jones by Gunman Boxing that he tried to impose his own famous and unique style on the Brighton man. ‘RJJ’ said absolutely not.
“Any fight fan that thinks that is out of their mind. I never ask any fighters to do anything that I don’t think they can do, and I never ask other fighters to duplicate Roy Jones Jr. That would be stupid. I’m not God. That’s completely out of the question. When I came to the Liam Smith fight, I told him, ‘you don’t need me for this fight. The old you is sufficient and exactly what you need.’ So for people saying I took something out of him, they’re wrong.
“Don’t say I took nothing out of him. I didn’t. I added to him. I never would take nothing out of anybody … There was small things that he was missing, as you saw in the Groves fight and the Billy Joe Saunders fight … I was here to add what he would probably need if he [had those fights again] … That’s the mistake fans make, they listen to people like Eddie Hearn who tell them, ‘Oh Roy’s changed Chris.’ I didn’t change nothing, he chose to change it.”
