By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn plans to use former world champions Robert ‘The Ghost’ Guerrero or Marice ‘Mighty Mo’ Hooker as the next opponent for welterweight contender Conor Benn in April.
In Benn’s last fight, he stopped past his best 37-year-old former WBO 140-lb champion Chris Algieri on December 11th in Liverpool, England. The New Yorker Algieri was a one-hit-wonder back in 2014 when he defeated the vulnerable WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov by a 12 round split decision.
Algieri’s 15 minutes of fame was over immediately. Still, he successfully transmuted his victory over Provodnikov to two well-paying fights against Manny Pacquiao and Errol Spence Jr, losing both badly.
Since then, Algieri’s career has been over. Interestingly, Hearn chose Algieri for Benn to fight instead of a relevant fighter from the 147-lb division, a move that reinforces the belief that he’s just setting Conor up for a cash-out.
Benn feels he’s ready to fight for a world title in 2022 against WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas. Unfortunately, Ugas isn’t available because he plans to fight IBF/WBC champion Errol Spence Jr. in April.
Spence is likely to be the winner when the smoke clears from that fight, and he could face WBO champion Terence Crawford next. Under a base case scenario, Benn will get a chance to fight for a world title in the first half of 2023.
Before then, it would be a good idea for Hearn to match Benn against A-level fighters to prepare him for meeting Spence, Ugas, or Crawford. Going from fighting the likes of Guerrero, Hooker, or Adrien Broner to taking on one of the world champions at 147, it would be asking for too much from Benn.
Conor Benn being positioned for a cash-out?
The way Hearn is matching Benn, it appears that he’s trying to get him a quick cash-out rather than building him up in a genuine way to prepare for a title shot.
If this is just about money for Hearn and Benn, they’re going a bang-up job by fighting exclusively shot old-timers, who lack the size, power, and youth to give him problems.
“Broner would like a fight before because he is on a new crusade of seriousness,” Hearn said to ESPN.
“He says he’s ready for Conor Benn but wants to fight in March if possible. If not, two names we like are Robert Guerrero and Maurice Hooker at The O2. It will be one of those three names, most likely.”
The former two-division world champion Guerrero (37-6-1, 20 KOs) is 38-years-old now, and he’s been a shadow of his former self since moving up from 135 to 147 in 2012.
Guerrero lacked the size to compete with the best at welterweights, and his career has suffered immensely ever since.
But on the positive side, Guerrero has made a lot of money in moving up to 147, and he’s set for life with the fortune he’s collected over the years in fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr, Andre Berto, Keith Thurman, and Victor Ortiz.
Hearn’s first choice of opponent for the unbeaten Benn (20-0, 13 KOs), former four-division world champion Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner, is unlikely to take the fight because the 32-year-old wants a warm-up bout in March at 140.
After years of seemingly not taking his career seriously, Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs) wants to get in top shape before taking on the considerably younger, bigger, and stronger 25-year-old Benn.
Conor is the son of former British star Nigel Benn, but he looks and fights nothing like his famous dad. Nigel was bigger, stronger, faster, and better inside fighter. There’s no comparison between the two.
Out of necessity, Conor is more calculated than Nigel was and tends to pick his spots to go on the attack. In Nigel’s case, he would relentlessly attack his foes and wear them down slowly with his steady bombardment until he got the stoppage.
Nigel’s inside game was on another level. It’s too bad Conor can’t fight in close like he did because that would open up a new facet to his game.
Conor hasn’t shown any ability to fight in close, and it’s unlikely that he ever will at this point. It takes years for fighters to learn how to fight on the inside, and Conor’s late start in the game puts him at a disadvantage in this area.
Benn says he doesn’t need two more tune-ups
“I don’t believe I need a couple more fights; if they offered me Ugas next, I would take that fight,” Benn said. “I know what I’m capable of and what I’ve been doing in the ring proves it.”
Charles Brun hates to drizzle on Benn’s parade, but what he’s proven recently with his wins over the old-timers Algieri, Samuel Vargas, Adrian Granados, and the bottom fringe contender Sebastian Formella means absolutely nothing.
Benn has proven nothing with his wins over the lower-level cannon fodder that Hearn has constantly shoveling into the ring for him to beat.
It’s troubling that Benn isn’t self-aware enough to realize that Hearn is matching him against sub-level appetizers instead of world-class opposition. Hasn’t Conor’s father Nigel Benn already clued him into what Hearn is doing?
“I can’t see either of them fighting me, more chance of Brook maybe,” Benn said of the Amir Khan vs. Kell Brook winner not likely to face him.
Hearn isn’t likely to let former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook anywhere near Conor Benn, even though he’s old and shot at 35 and rarely fights any longer. Brook is like an old unexploded ‘Bouncing Betty’ landmine that has been buried in the cold earth for 50 years, yet still quite dangerous if triggered.
If Benn faces Brook, he and his promoter Hearn could be sorry for doing so. That’s why it’s so utterly unlikely that fight will be made because Brook could wreck the Benn money train quite easily.
Brook can still punch, and he WON’T turn down the Benn fight if it’s offered to him by Hearn because Conor would be food for him. As flawed as Conor has shown to be, Brook would be a nightmare for him.