By Brian Webber: Chris Eubank Jr says he’s going to smile at Conor Benn if he connects with a big shot similar to the one that he nailed journeyman Chris Algieri with last December with his fourth round knockout.
Eubank Jr says he’s got a better chin than the 38-year-old Algieri, and he’ll be able to take Benn’s best shots and answer back with his own big shots.
Some would say that the 26-year-old Conor Benn has been protected by his promoter Eddie Hearn, who has kept him away from big punchers during his six-year professional career.
When Hearn did put Benn in with the heavy-handed Frenchman Cedrick Peynaud, he was dropped twice and wound up winning a highly controversial six round points decision. Many people that saw that fight had Peynaud easily winning.
It’s fair to say that if Eubank Jr is able to put hands on Benn the way Peynaud did, he’s going to obliterate him, even if he is weight drained from the 157-lb catchweight and 10-lb rehydration clause for the fight.
We’d know more about Benn if Hearn had put him in against these contenders at 147:
- Keith Thurman
- Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis
- Vergil Ortiz Jr
- Eimantas Stannionis
- Yordenis Ugas
- David Avanesyan
Interestingly, Benn and Hearn were never interested in the Avanesyan fight because that’s a match-up that would have given Conor experience. The fact that Benn made excuses not to have to fight Avanesyan tells you a lot about his willingness too face the best at 147.
“All those attributes are going to get him into a lot of trouble against me,” said Chris Eubank Jr to DAZN Boxing about Conor Benn and his aggressiveness.
“When I was 22 vs. when I was 26, big, big improvements,” continued Eubank Jr. “He improves with every fight, and now he’s at a stage where he thinks he’s on the level where he can play with the big boys.
“At this stage in 2019, I wasn’t looking at him as a potential opponent. I always said how amazing that would be if we ever got into the ring.
“He’s maturing; he’s becoming a monster,” said Eubank Jr, talking about Conor Benn’s fight against journeyman Samuel Vargas. “He’s relentless; he has that fire. He wants to hurt you.
“We both have something to prove. Not so much for me anymore because I’ve been there, and I’ve done it. Especially early on in my carer, I was always having to prove that I was supposed to be there. That I wasn’t a gimmick. It wasn’t because of my name that I was in this fight.
“That’s what made me so relentless. I couldn’t go there and jab a guy’s head off and be happy with a point’s decision. I couldn’t do it. They expected too much from me.
“There were too many haters and too many doubters, too many trolls online saying all these things. I couldn’t give them that ammunition. I had to go and take these guys out. He’s the same.
“He’s growing here,” said Eubank Jr about Conor’s fight with Chris Algieri. “Algieri is a former world champion, a very experienced guy, and Conor blew him out of the water. He hit him with a shot that’s heavy. He’s heavy-handed, but Algieri doesn’t have the chin that Chris Eubank Jr has.
If Conor can connect with that kind of shot against me, I’m going to smile in his face. I’m not going down like Chris Algieri did. When that happens, and he’s able to hit me with a shot like that, and he sees me looking at him and smiling and saying, ‘Yeah, come on. Where’s the next one?’ How’s he going to react? That’s what we’re going to find out,” said Eubank Jr.
