• Inside Boxing

'I don't have to fight Eubank - but I want to hurt him'

Billy Joe Saunders fights Chris Eubank Jr at London's ExCel Arena on November 29 © PA Photos

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Billy Joe Saunders tells Nick Parkinson why his dislike for Chris Eubank Jr is genuine as the pair prepare to face each other for the European middleweight title on November 29 in one of the biggest domestic fights of the year:

Whether he's ready or not he's going to get a bad beating on the night. He's going to get well paid for it, it will be a big pay day for him, but whatever he brings he's going to get a hiding.

People might think all this talk is to sell the fight, but it's genuine. He brought my name up and said he would stop me in five or six rounds. When you are going to say that about someone who is British champion and you haven't done anything yourself, it's disrespectful. I've had a lot more boxing experience than him. My dad wasn't world champion like his was, but I've been British and European middleweight champion which is a lot more than what he has done.

He's an ignorant man and no one gets on with him. I will be doing a lot of people a favour in this fight.

I don't like him, in fact I can't stand him and it's more that I want to get in there and hurt him. If this wasn't genuine, I wouldn't even give him the opportunity because I'm so close to a world title shot, but it's because I don't like him so much and want to beat him up that I've taken this fight. I don't have to. I've put a WBO world title fight on the line for this and if it wasn't real hate for him I wouldn't be fighting him.

It's taken a while to get it made but I've been told he has signed the contract. I think he has just been trying to play mind games by taking his time over signing the contract, but it doesn't bother me. I'm not bothered by who his old man is either. Nothing they do or say is going to bother me in the lead up to this fight.

He might have his dad on his side but I've got Joe Calzaghe on mine - and Joe Calzaghe smashed his old man up. His dad can't do the fighting for him so he's not going to be any help to him.

I've heard he's fighting on October 25 before our fight. That's not a good idea but he has chosen to do it because he wants to be seen to be different from everybody else. It's only going to be a dead body so it won't do him any good. He's built his record up by fighting Polish pub fighters.

I started training at the end of August and I'm going to get away to the MGM Gym in Marbella to get away from it all so I can just concentrate on my training and be as sharp as possible. My boxing will be clear cut, diamond sharp on the night.

People are saying he's not ready, he's only gone eight rounds, but when I hear that it just comes in one ear and out the other. I'm training for him like it's going to be my hardest fight. If I listen to people saying he's not ready, I won't think he's a threat.

At world title level you get champions dodging each other as we saw when Peter Quillin gave up the WBO world middleweight title rather than defending it against Matt Korobov. Quillin was going to get well paid for fighting him, the best he's ever had, but him doing that just shows to me he doesn't understand the boxing game.

When you have a world title you are there, it's what the game is all about, so I don't know what the thinking was for Quillin to vacate the title. It was a bad decision by himself or his manager. It's probably because they don't want to fight certain people and it seems no one wants to fight Korobov at the moment. I don't like that and I will fight anybody because you have to beat the best to be the best.

I've heard the vacant WBO title will now be fought by Andy Lee and Korobov - and I get the winner. If Lee gets home advantage he can win that fight because he has looked good recently.

The presence of Chris Eubank Jr's father has not fazed Billy Joe Saunders © PA Photos

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