Liam Smith and Chris Eubank Jnr are set to go head-to-head in a middleweight contest in Manchester on Saturday night, and will step into the ring on the back of a bitter war of words.
Things took a somewhat bizarre turn in a press conference before their PPV fight, which is set to be broadcast live on Sky Sports Box Office, with Smith appearing to ask Eubank if he was gay.
Discussing the upcoming fight, Eubank revealed Smith had messaged him on Instagram, stating: “You slid into my DMs. I’m used to seeing girls in my DMs, I’m not used to seeing guys.”
Smith then replied: “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.”
Eubank, unsurprisingly annoyed by the comments, then hit back: “Listen, my private life is my private life. That’s irrelevant to the boxing, but I’m happy, I’m comfortable.”
Smith asked again: “Do you have something you wanna tell us?”
Again, Eubank Jr responded: “It’s a very personal question to ask me directly. You can slide in my DMs or you can do it right now.”
Smith then added: “I’m not that type of way mate, I like women.”
The seemingly homophobic comments saw Eubank make some personal attacks of his own.
“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.”
Smith replied: “You haven’t got a missus to cheat on.”
Sky Sports instantly apologised for the ‘offensive language’ and ‘homophobic’ remarks that had been made during the exchange.
Eubank later turned up to the weigh-in wearing a rainbow armband, an apparent reference to Smith's jibes about his sexuality.
Tweeting a picture of the pair, Eubank wrote: "We don’t discriminate… we don’t alienate. We want boxing & sport as a whole, to be all inclusive."
The pair face off on Saturday night at Manchester's AO Arena.
