By Trevor McIntyre: Welterweight prospect Conor Benn (13-0, 9 KOs) stayed undefeated with an unimpressive 10 round unanimous decision on Saturday night in his rematch against journeyman Cedrick Peynaud (6-6-3, 4 KOs) at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Benn knocked Peynaud down three times in dropping him in rounds 2, 7 and 9. Benn couldn’t knock Peynaud out no matter how hard he tried. Likewise, Peynaud came up empty in trying to score a knockout of his own despite landing countless hard head shots that Benn took. The only big plus from Benn’s performance tonight was his ability to take major shots from Peynaud without being wobbled and dropped.
What was troubling was how many punches Benn absorbed. He shouldn’t have been hit as much as he was in the fight. For a fighter that is being given choice spots on Matchroom Sport’s Sky Box Office cards, Benn has shown precious little in the way of talent.
At some point Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn is going to need to wake up and realize that Benn lacks the talent to be on his major pay-per-view cards on Sky Box Office. It would be better for Hearn to reserve better talent for his cards instead of selecting fighters based on them being the offspring of famous fighters. By the time Benn reaches 25, he may be punch drunk from all the punishment he’s taken in his fights.
The 21-year-old Benn won the fight by the scores 98-91, 98-91 and 98-90. Boxing News 24 scored it for Benn by a 98-91 score. However, Benn was far from impressive in beating the 32-year-old Peynaud. Benn’s defense was leaky, his hand speed slow, and his movements looking uncoordinated throughout. In an example of Benn’s lack of coordination came late in the fight when he stumbled and went flying when he attempted to do an Ali shuffle.
Peynaud had little problems landing hard right hands to the head of Benn in the early going. Benn made it easy for Peynaud to land his shots.
Benn previously defeated Peynaud by a close six round points decision in their fight last year in December. Benn tasted the canvas twice in that fight before coming on late to score to knockdowns to get the ‘W’ over the fighter from France. Benn showed slight improvement in the rematch, but nothing to write home about. He still looked like someone that would be blown out by a halfway decent journeyman fighter. Benn doesn’t look like a world class fighter and he doesn’t appear that he’s ever going to be world class.
On the positive note, Benn showed better movement against Peynaud than he did in the first fight, and his jab looked good. That’s the good news for Benn’s boxing fans. What was bad about Benn’s performance was he was still getting hit a lot by Peynaud throughout the fight, and he didn’t finish strong the way that he should have against a low level opponent,
Benn is still young a 21, so it’s possible that he may improve enough in the future to eventually develop into a British level welterweight. However, Benn isn’t showing any of the same kind of talent as his famous father Nigel Benn.