Conor Benn vs. Chris Van Heerden possible for April 16th

By Boxing News - 02/10/2022 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Conor Benn’s promoter Eddie Hearn states that 34-year-old Chris van Heerden has accepted an offer for a potential fight on April 16th.

Hearn says he’s also made offers to Adrien Broner and another fighter he chooses not to reveal. Maurice Hooker agreed to the fight with Conor, but unfortunately, he suffered an injury in training and is now out of the picture.

It would seem Van Heerden (28-2-1, 12 KOs) would be the last resort if Broner or the other opponent refused the fight with the unbeaten Benn (20-0, 13 KOs).

Seven years ago, 24-year-old Errol Spence Jr. knocked out Van Heerden in the eighth round in 2015. It’s predictable that Benn will brag endlessly if he stops Van Heerden more quickly than Spence.

Van Heerden hasn’t fought in two years, and his last win came three years ago against little-known Aslanbek Kozaev in 2019.

Despite the South African’s lack of ring activity, talent-wise, he’s similar to Benn’s last two opponents, Chris Algieri and Adrian Granados.

The boxing public will royally dump on Benn if he faces Van Heerden next, considering he’s been talking about wanting to fight WBA 147-lb champion Yordenis Ugas and middleweight Chris Eubank Jr.

Image: Conor Benn vs. Chris Van Heerden possible for April 16th

If Benn winds up facing Van Heerden, he’s going to get the same reputation as Ryan Garcia, a fighter that talks big about fighting elite-level opposition but then disappoints by mixing it with talentless fodder.

“Hooker accepted the fight, and I was quite pleased with that but picked up an injury in his first week of training,” said Eddie Hearn to ProBoxing Fans about Conor Benn’s next fight.

“We’re talking to him about the dates now whether that’s moved. Van Heerden has accepted the fight [with Benn]. We also have two other offers out with other opponents.

One is [Adrien] Broner, and the other is someone else that I won’t mention at the moment out of respect for them—looking to make an announcement next week.

“If Fury-Whyte happens, then it looks like April 16th will be the date for Conor  Benn,” said Hearn.

Fans are starting to suspect that Hearn has little faith in Benn’s ability to mix it with the contenders in the welterweight division. Hence, he’s strictly matching him exclusively old-timers that are many years best their prime.

Hearn says Benn is improving, but how can he tell with his opposition being marginal fighters. There’s no way of knowing if Benn is getting better because he’s facing gawdawful opponents over and over.

What we don’t want to see is Benn put together a  glittering 50-0 record before he’s thrown in the deep end for the first time.

The way Hearn is matching Benn, it looks to some like he’s trying to build him up to be a cash-out fight, which he’ll be totally unprepared for but will make tons of dough.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that Benn should hold off on the idea of fighting VanHeerden next and have Hearn set up a fight against David Avanesyan, Vergil Ortiz Jr., or Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis next.

Benn will never progress if Hearn keeps coddling him with pap opposition. Hearn should let Benn fight the above murderer’s row of welterweights, and if he’s as good as his famous father Nigel, he’ll emerge from those fights still unbeaten, ready to challenge for a world title.

Heck, even if Benn loses to all three of them, he’ll learn more in those fights than he has in his previous 20. Nigel Benn wasn’t pampered by his promoters when he was rising through the ranks.

By the time Nigel Benn was Conor’s age at 25, he’d already fought these talents:

  • Michael Watson
  • Doug Dewitt
  • Sanderline Williams
  • Chris Eubank
  • Iran Barkley
  • Anthony Logan

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