By Sam Volz: Conor Benn is off to an early start adding what appears to be a considerable amount of bulk to his 5’8″ frame ahead of his soon-to-be-announced fight against middleweight Chris Eubank Jr on October 8th in the UK.

Benn, who turns 26 years old in September, posted a photo of himself on social media on Friday, and he looks like a full-fledged junior middleweight and only needs to add a small amount of weight to get to the 160-lb division.

The question is, will all the extra weight that Benn is packing on benefit him or turn out to be a heavy anchor that will drag him to the bottom once he gets inside the ring with the former IBO 168-lb champion Eubank Jr (32-2, 23 KOs) in October.

If this is just about money for the untested Benn rather than a need to win, it won’t matter if Eubank Jr. roasts him and sends him packing with an early knockout. The huge dough that Benn will receive for the fight will be a salve for his hurt feelings.

Indeed, Benn (21-0, 14 KOs) can cry all the way to the bank with the millions he’ll get for the Eubank Jr fight.

“You look at Conor in his fight with Chris Algieri, and he dealt with him pretty handily,” said John Ryder to iFL TV. “I don’t know if Eubank Jr will be that much bigger [than Benn], to be fair.

⚖️ 🍽 pic.twitter.com/fK677hCzSn

— Conor Nigel Benn (@ConorNigel) July 22, 2022

“I know obviously he has a slight size advantage, but I don’t think he’ll be quite as tall as Chris Algieri. Conor is used to being the smaller man on a lot of occasions.

“I’m sure he’ll use that to his advantage and use his explosive power to help him. Listen, I can make an argument for Conor, and I can make an argument for Chris. Whoever gets their game plan right. I know Tony is bang-on with his game plans to the tee, and I always favor Conor.

“It’s whoever has their game plan in place, but you’ve got to go out and execute. As long as both fighters don’t let the occasion get the better of them and let their heart rule their head and use their brains, we’re going to be in for a treat.

“If this turns into a slugfest and Conor boxes to Chris’s advantage, then it’s going to go wrong for him. I know Conor can stick to a game plan, and I know Conor can execute to perfection and come away victorious,” said Ryder.

Benn has been carefully matched by his promoter Eddie Hearn, who has made it a point to select older fighters exclusively in what he says have been “learning fights.”

You can argue that the fights haven’t taught Benn anything, which has resulted in him developing bad habits by bum-rushing his old & frail opponents to blast them to smithereens.

Benn can’t fight like that against genuine welterweight contenders without getting beaten up like he was by Cedrick Peynaud.