CHRIS EUBANK JR and Conor Benn will write their own rivalry into British boxing’s official records when they meet in a domestic super-fight in London’s O2 Arena on 8 October, live on DAZN pay-per-view.
Eubank Jr, a fully fledged middleweight (160lbs) who has campaigned as high as super-middle (168), and hard-hitting welterweight (147) Benn, will meet in the middle at a 157-pound catchweight. There will be a strict rehydration clause in place to ensure that the 32-year-old Eubank doesn’t enter the ring excessively larger than Benn, 25.
The Brighton and Essex boxers’ fathers, Chris Eubank Sr and Nigel Benn, enjoyed one of British sport’s most famous rivalries during a boom time for boxing in the early ’90s. They fought twice on terrestrial television: Eubank Sr stopped Benn in the ninth round of their first encounter at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham and, three years later, the bitter nemeses fought to a draw in a super-middleweight world-title rematch at Old Trafford, Manchester.
Eubank Jr [32-2, 23 KOs] has amassed a number of impressive victories without yet winning a recognised world title, most recently vanquishing another British rival, Liam Williams of Wales, in February. Benn [21-0, 14KOs], meanwhile, is at a more formative stage of his career but has fast become one of the biggest personalities in the British sport.
His and Benn’s rivalry is scarcely as acidic — or as organic — as their fathers’, but Eubank Jr said: “I grew up watching their legendary battles and always wanting to emulate that, and find my own arch nemesis… Could this now be Conor Benn? We will find out.
He has walked the same path as I have. I know his struggle. Living in the shadow of a legend and trying to break out of that shadow and make his own name. If he can beat me, his name will be made, and he will never walk in his father’s shadow again.
“It’s a fight that’s going to spark the imagination of the British public, that’s what I’m happy about. In terms of anticipation, legacy and hype it’s the biggest fight of my career.”
Benn added of the October clash: “This fight is for the legacy and was an opportunity I felt I couldn’t pass up. My team and I had other options on the table as I’m currently ranked top five with all governing bodies at welterweight and no doubt I’m looking for a world championship fight very soon, but this fight is embedded with so much history and I know it’s one the public really want to see.
To me this fight is personal. It’s more than titles and rankings: this is unfinished business between our families.
‘Born Rivals’ is the perfect [name] for this fight, because we have always been associated and I’ve always been asked if we’d ever fight, and now I can’t wait for the world to be able to watch us make that happen.
“All I know is that from my side, this will be an all-out war, last-man-standing kind of fight. Neither will give up until the last bell rings. I won’t be looking to take this to the score cards though, this will be explosive from the off. I’m so up for this.”
The fight will be co-promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom, who steer the career of Benn, and Wasserman Boxing under whose banner Eubank has recently campaigned.
