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Chris Eubank Jr. vs Conor Benn: the full story
A closer look at the grudge match that's 35 years in the making
Two big, boastful personalities, snarling and showboating through their recent press conference in Manchester, are set for a dynastic clash due to be written in British boxing history this spring. On 26 April, the much-anticipated middleweight bout between Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. will explode into action as the main event at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, with Eubank Jr.’s IBO World Middleweight title on the line.
Eubank Jr., with a 34-3 record and 25 wins by knockout, is a fearsome and tactical middleweight with a punishing right hand and a knack for knowing just how to taunt his opponents. He has no problem playing the heel, and a talent for a well-timed uppercut. Benn (23-0, 14 wins by KO) has made a name for himself as a thrilling and dangerous fighter with an aggressive style, going professional at only 19 and remaining undefeated.
At age 35, Eubank Jr. faces a younger challenger in the form of Benn, who is 28. And while Eubank Jr. has often fought (and triumphed) at super-middleweight division, Benn is more naturally found at welterweight, moving up two weight classes from 147 to 160lbs to fight Eubank Jr. Boxing pundits will tell you that means there is a significant weight advantage for the bigger – and taller – fighter, but Benn’s promoter Eddie Hearn says ‘Benn is training like a man possessed’, and his famous dad Nigel echoes: “I’m not worried one bit […] Conor wants to destroy him”.
The event also marks the first hosted event by the relaunched, storied magazine known as ‘The Boxing Bible’: The Ring magazine, now owned by Riyadh Season mogul Turki Alalshikh. The conflict has been a long time coming, given that the pair were originally set to clash back in October 2022, only for the fight to be called off after Benn failed two drug tests. Now cleared for the big fight, Benn maintains his innocence, claiming that an overconsumption of eggs impacted the hormone levels in his system. Meanwhile, Eubank Jr. frequently picks at the wound (“Conor, how many eggs did you have to eat to fail those drug tests?”).
It’s been thirty-five years since their pugilist fathers, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank Sr., slugged it out for the middleweight and super-middleweight titles, both seething with genuine dislike for one another. For the flamboyantly condescending Eubank Sr. and the more circumspect machismo of Nigel Benn, there was a clash in personality and background outside the ring as much as within it. For their sons, holding onto the family grudge seemed to come naturally.
A press conference this week descended into a chaotic brawl, as both exchanged low-blows about each other’s boxing careers. The scene escalated shockingly when Eubank Jr. smashed an egg into Benn’s face, an insult symbolic of the fighter’s chequered history. Unsurprisingly, the room erupted in violence as a result, with dad Nigel Benn diving into the fray in defense of his son before security guards separated the fighters and their teams. Even Hearn got in on the action, confronting Eubank Jr.’s promoter Ben Shalom with a shove.
Bygones are most certainly not bygones in this case, as the pair of fighters – both known as vicious punchers – are likely to adopt fast, aggressive styles in the ring. Some speculate that Benn’s youthful advantage and ferocious energy may result in an early, exciting KO – he even claimed that he’d do in two rounds. But there’s an equally likely chance that Eubank Jr., the larger and more experienced fighter, may win on points as the rounds stretch on. Eubank Jr. is coming off the back of a title-winning triumph against Kamil Szeremeta in Riyadh, where Szeremeta hit the canvas no less than four times before the fight ended in a TKO victory for the Brit. Benn, meanwhile, won in a unanimous points victory over welterweight Peter Dobson in Vegas last February.
As Hearn pointed out after the egg confrontation, the fight has now significantly changed, with Benn on the absolute warpath in the aftermath of the obnoxious gesture. If it’s a strategy on Eubank Jr.’s part to destabilise Benn’s strategy or get him to come in punching, it might be a shrewd one indeed. Eubank Jr. further rubbed it in at the press conference, when he said to Benn of his 2022 controversy: “You had the whole public behind you; everyone wanted you to win and to be the next big thing in boxing. I never had that. You know what I would have given to be in that situation you were in? You had it. You literally pissed it all away.”
Excitingly, Alalshikh has also said that he hopes to make a fight between whoever is the winner on 26 April and all-time great Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, the former unified middleweight and current WBC and WBO super middleweight champion of the world. There’s a rematch clause in Eubank Jr. and Benn’s contract, too; this may be the grudge match that keeps delivering.
With two genuine bad boys duking it out in the ring, it’s difficult to know who to root for. Eubank Jr. happily refers to himself as a ‘super-villain’, while Benn will always have a black mark on his name for what some believe was cheating. Regardless of their behaviour outside of the ring, both Benn and Eubank Jr.’s refusal to play nicely has led to what’s bound to be a walloping, brutal outcome in the ring; these two have genuine enmity between them. Someone’s going to end up with egg on their face, and I can’t wait to find out who.
