By Scott Gilfoid: Welterweight prospect Conor Benn (11-0, 8 KOs) had to get up off the canvas twice in round 1 to come back to defeat 31-year-old Cedrick Reynaud (5-5-3, 3 KOs) by a 6 round points decision on Wednesday night at the York Hall in Bethnal Green, in London, UK. The referee scored it 57-54 for Benn. Boxing News 24 had Benn winning 4 rounds to 2. To say that Benn looked poor tonight is being kind. He was absolutely horrible.
Benn’s face showed the signs of a fighter that had taken a beating at the hands of Peynaud. Benn’s right eye was swollen badly, and his left eye was cut from the shots from Peynaud. Benn shouldn’t have been hit as many times as he did. Peynaud had past losses to guys with dreadful records.
The fact that Benn couldn’t dominate a fighter with a 5-4-3 record has to be viewed as a warning sign that he’s not destined to go far in the sport like his famous father. The way Benn fought, he would have been destroyed had he been inside the ring with any of the contenders in the welterweight division. Benn didn’t show the skills that you’d like to see from a future contender. Sadly, Benn is too raw.
Peynaud, who comes from France, knocked the 21-year-old Benn down hard on two occasions in round 1. Benn was hurt on both knockdowns. Benn got up and finished the round, but he continued to get hammered in the round before it ended. Benn left himself open when attacking all out like his father Nigel Benn used to do. The problem Conor has is he doesn’t have the punch resistance, speed or the defensive skills of his father.
Benn came back later in the fight and dropped Peynaud down in the 5th and 6th rounds. But even in those rounds, Reynaud was nailing Benn with shots that were snapping his head back just like the punches that flattened him in round 1. Fortunately for Benn, he stayed on his feet, but it was troubling to see him still getting nailed by shots from a fighter with a 5-4-3 record coming into the fight.
If you’re Benn, you have to interpret this fight as a loss rather than a win, because his stock REALLY drops after this fight. He was close to losing the fight on my scorecard. The only reason Benn won is because Peynaud gassed out in the 5th and 6th round. A good welterweight like Errol Spence, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter would have made easy work with Benn. Those guys would have likely wiped the deck with Benn even when they were amateurs. They had good amateur backgrounds. Benn probably should still be fighting as an amateur because he’s just way too green to be fighting in the pro ranks right now. If Benn is going to use the pro ranks as improve his career, then he’s going to need many years before he’ll know enough to not get pummeled by fighters with a 5-4-3 record like we saw tonight. I don’t know if Benn I ever going to improve though. The flaws that I saw in Benn’s game tonight are ones that likely won’t go away anytime soon. He needs a good trainer because he shouldn’t be fighting so out of control the way he was.
“Massive learning experience. I’ll come back from it and learn from it,” said Benn to skysports.com. “The only thing I showed in that fight is – I have heart. I’ll learn from this, I’m only 20-years-old. I think I dealt with it alright. You cannot test heart, you’ve either got it, or you’ve not.”
Benn is 21, not 20. He turned 21 on September 28. Benn would do well if he went back to the amateurs and stayed there until he’s 25 or 26. At least by fighting in the amateurs, Benn would be quality guys with talent rather than mediocre fighters that beat him up like we saw tonight. Peynaud is a weak fighter, and yet almost beat Benn. Had Benn had a long amateur career, he would have learned enough to handle a fighter like Peynaud.