BOXING EXCLUSIVE: Chris Eubank Jr. 'Fury will struggle against Klitschko'

You've just finished a sparring session with two very different partners, what do you think you got out of today's session?

I've had ten good rounds. We build up week after week adding rounds of sparring for a twelve round fight and you have two or three different guys to push the limits. The idea is that you're in the ring the whole time and the alternating fighters are fresh and can give you their all. It went really well, they are two tough fighters with different styles – this prepares me well for any situation on the night.

You've been exchanging words back and forth with your opponent Spike O'Sullivan, and it looks like you got under his skin at the press conference. Do you feel like there is a mental battle to be won or is it all about the being in the ring on the night?

Regardless of how much you talk, if you can't back it up in the ring it doesn't matter. The only reason I got at him at the press conference was because he's been trying to terrorise me on Twitter for three years. Now he's facing me in the ring, and I'm looking right at him waiting to hear what he's got to say for himself. I called him fake and a pretender, which he clearly was and I think he just went into a shell. If you can call the press conference a 'battle', then I definitely won.

Staying on the fight, Spike O'Sullivan has been trained by the Collins brothers - does that hold any special family connection with Steve Collins beating your father (Chris Eubank Snr)?

There is no revenge when I fight Gary O'Sullivan. I avoid calling him 'Spike' because there is nothing spiky about him, he's not a super hero or villain and the name gives him an aura. He's a normal guy. Honestly, the whole Steve Collins issue is completely separate and will have no bearing when we step in to the ring on December 12th.

It's a very exciting time to be fighting in the middle/super-middle weight divisions. You mentioned the other day that you're running towards Gennady Golovkin while everyone else is running away, which was a nice quote, but you've got a lot of options to go for. Do you look at the Jacobs vs Quillin fight and fancy your chances against the winner or are you looking for a few more fights beforehand to see where you're at?

All the boxers you have mentioned are on the radar now – I want to be mixing with the best. However, these fights won't just be given to me, I have to earn my position to fight these guys, which I'm slowly but surely doing. This fight with Gary O'Sullivan will be an eliminator for Jacobs vs Quillin and I have actually been nominated by the British Boxing Board to fight Nick Blackwell, who is the British Middleweight Champion, so there are several options for me. I'm on a world level now, but fighting Nick would be special and personal. I'm a Brit through and though so winning a British title is definitely an option – it's an exciting road ahead.

From fighting to watching, do you consider yourself a real fan of the sport and do you watch a lot of fights – Miguel Cotto on the weekend for example?

I definitely watch the big fights, so of course I watched Cotto. I would say fan is the wrong word to use - I am a student of the sport. I watch the fights that are worth watching, the big names, the exciting matches with fighters who have a certain aura about them, not your standard bread and butter fights with a few punches thrown and that's it. I want people to watch me and feel entertained.

If there's one thing you have picked up off your old man, it's the way you've captured a mainstream audience, beyond hardcore boxing fans. It seems that British boxers lead the way in this respect and Tyson Fury has really got the public buzzing ahead of his fight with Wladimir Klitschko – do you think he can beat him?

He hasn't fought anyone close to his level and sadly I think the experience is what's going to win the fight for Wlad. It will be great for a Brit to become a heavyweight champion and I want him to win but it's a big ask. As for how he conducts himself, some people would say he's terrible for boxing, but those people don't understand that some of the things he does (and I do it too) are designed to get people talking about the sport. Even if it's not always savoury, it builds interest and interest builds money. He dressed up in a batman suit and people think he is an idiot, but they are still talking about it and they are talking about him in the context of boxing so people want to go and see what he's about. I think anyone that can bring attention to the sport is good for the sport.

Finally, moving on to your final preparation, we have seen you put it in today and we are getting closer and closer to the fight, is the intensity going up and then you get a week period of rest?

Yes, I'll train until about five or six days before the fight, then you start to take it down. Obviously you want to avoid burning yourself out before you step in to the ring and depending what your weight is, you may need to cut which will require more energy – so you may not be a hundred per cent too close to the fight because that's when you’re really starting to take off weight.

You're at the right weight aren't you?

Yes, I am a middleweight and I walk around at least 12st 1/2lbs and I fight around 11st 6lbs so it's not a huge deal for me to get down to that weight which I can do comfortably.

Do you see yourself going up through the weights later in your career?

I think as I get older, I'm 26 now, I will step up to Super middle-weight as there are great fights at super middle weight. If it's possible for me to step up and set up some exciting fights then absolutely, anything is possible.

On a more light-hearted note, you've got your dad (Chris Eubank Snr) in the Jungle at the moment, are you enjoying him on the TV?

So far he is coming across very well.

He is a gentleman.

That's what I've been told and that's the feedback I've been given. I'm on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and all the feedback I have been getting on how he is doing has been positive so who knows, we could have a new Eubank as King of the Jungle in a couple of weeks.

Thanks to BEEFit original interview available here