Ben Shalom and Eddie Hearn usually do not like each other but on Thursday evening, at thefinal press conferencefor the troubling bout between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn, the promoters were almost breathless in their audacity and unity as they hailed a gift from the boxing heavens.
Shalom, Eubank Jr’s promoter, lauded “the biggest British boxing story ever”, “a monumental event” and “an unbelievable show” which has been “35 years in the making” as he suggested that Saturday night’s showdown completes the trilogy between two families – after the fighters’ fathers, Chris Eubank Sr and Nigel Benn, shared a couple of seismic bouts in the early 1990s. Hearn, who promotes Benn, spoke of “a fight for the generations … an iconic main event … an incredible time for boxing” and urged us to “remember this night … this is what it’s all about.”
Eubank Jris 35 years old and he has often campaigned as a super-middleweight at 168lb, which is 21lb heavier than the welterweight category in which Benn has mostly fought. He and Benn will now bridge the size-gap and meet as middleweights, but, on Friday morning, at the official weigh-in behind closed doors, Eubank Jr failed twice to make the 160 pound mark. While his second attempt was just 0.05lb (0.8 ounces) heavier than the contracted weight, Eubank Jr has been fined £375,000.
He also faces a further test. Eubank Jr has to weigh in again on the morning of the fight and cannot scale more than an additional 10lb.
After a hard weight-cut, Eubank Jr could normally add at least 15lb before stepping into the ring the following night. But the rehydration clause, which compromises his recovery and allows the fight to gain a worrying edge, has been condemned in some quarters.
Peter Hamlyn,the neurosurgeon who has saved the lives of multiple boxers, if not all from the harm of brain damage, has spoken of the risk and irresponsibility. Chris Eubank Sr haspleaded for the fight to be stopped. He has also cut ties with his son because of the weight stipulation and the fact that Junior’s antics have matched Benn’s spiteful insults.
They were first meant to fight in October 2022 – but that contest was cancelled after Benn returnedtwo separate positive drug test results. Since then controversy and scandal have held sway. Benn has spent the intervening period ranting at the injustice he feels he has suffered while refusing to share the “scientific proof” which he insists clears him of intentional wrongdoing. He has also railed against Eubank Jr who has goaded him as “a cheat” andsplattered an egg against his face. Saturday will be Benn’s first UK fight in three years after the National Anti-Doping Panel concluded it was not satisfied an anti-doping violation had been proven and lifted a suspension last November.
But the hard sell of an unpalatable fight has not caught fire yet. Even the heavy-handed Fatal Fury name given to the bout has been loaned from a promotionally linked gaming series that is far more popular than the battered old business of boxing. In a curiously flat fight week the commercial success might not be as clear-cut as has been previously suggested.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is apparently sold out but this week it has been possible to buy fight tickets for as little as £24 on websites which can charge exorbitant prices for sporting events. At the same time the promoters have been giving away plenty of freebies, in the form of online competitions, as there are apparently enough spares that were not snapped up by the paying public. This might be canny marketing but it seems strange that a heavily hyped fight, meant to generate widespread interest outside hardcore boxing circles, should have so many tickets floating around.
However, the rehydration restrictions and bitter arguments have lent a layer of intrigue as to what might happen when Eubank Jr and Benn are alone in the ring. Most boxing insiders have long believed that Eubank Jr should win clearly. He might fall just short of true world-class pedigree but he is the bigger man, with so much more experience than Benn.
But over the past few days there has been a sudden swing of guesswork that the 28-year-old Benn could prevail against the odds. Whenever so many seasoned judges change their minds it’s worth pausing. The late backing of Benn seems to be based on gossip from sparring sessions, with Eubank Jr supposedly looking poor while Benn has apparently lit up the ring behind closed doors, and the abrupt realisation that age and weight might have humbled the favourite.
Eubank Jr has lost three times in 37 fights and those defeats have been to domestic rivals – Billy Joe Saunders, George Groves and Liam Smith. The last, in January 2023, was the most shocking. Eubank Jr’s iron jaw resembles his father’s but, against Smith, he was knocked down twice before the fight waswaved over in round four. It looked as if an ageing fighter was nearing the end of a bleak road.
But Eubank Jrdominated the rematch nine months later. It emerged that Smith had various problems but, impressively, Eubank forced a 10th-round stoppage.
Since then he has fought only once – a routine technical knockout of the Polish boxer, Kamil Szeremeta, in Riyadh. It meant that Eubank Jr had forced 10 knockdowns in his last three wins without resembling a devastating puncher. That anomaly might be another sign that age has drained Eubank Jr of his natural power.
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Benn had always seemed an average operator, after a brief amateur career, but he finally lived up to his father’s name as a destroyer when he dispatched the veterans Chris Algieri and Chris van Heerden with chilling authority. These were his last fights before he tested positive for clomifene, with the two separate results being recorded months apart.
While he struggled to clear his name Benn staged an unconvincing comeback in America and won a couple of laboured decisions against the obscure Rodolfo Orozco and Peter Dobson. Now, it is claimed, he looks brilliant in the gym. He also appears much bigger and carries a burning intensity to hurt the man who has taunted him for so long.
This injects some drama into the occasion but it should not be forgotten that we are watching two local rivals whose careers have battled to rise above decent competence. Those banging the drum have tried to make this sound like a British equivalent of the epic world middleweight fight between Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns which scorched the ring 40 years ago this month. But these fisticuffs are humdrum and even embarrassing in comparison.
Boxing was once covered by great writers and social commentators. It is now a marginalised sport where its humble hacks are denied access to the fighters while they wait to hear if they will be granted accreditation. Those credentials can be withdrawn following criticism of Saudi Arabia or boxing’s power-brokers. The optics look petty when one of the world’s most visited and respected fight websites,BoxingScene, has been denied accreditation for the past four major events to which it has submitted applications, including this week in Tottenham. Some highly credible writers and editors are being shut out of boxing.
It is also timely to remember how the promoters and many of the undercard fighters on Thursday thanked Turki al-Sheikh for brokering the bout. Sheikh heads the General Entertainment Authority which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars securing Saudi Arabia’s takeover of elite boxing.
Twelve hours after Sheikh’s name was celebrated,the Athletic publisheda sobering six-month investigation into the reputation of the man revered in boxing as His Excellency. The allegations are serious, and apparently well-sourced. Sheikh did not respond to the claims made against him in the investigation.
It is likely that boxing will fall silent in regard to this issue once the sound and fury, signifying nothing, fade after Eubank Jr and Benn leave the ring. It fits the desolate pattern of today’s fight business but, hey, as we keep being reminded, this is “an incredible time for boxing.”