By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn and Conor Benn both want the fight against Chris Eubank Jr next and don’t seem to care that he’s coming off a humiliating fourth round knockout against fringe-level 154-pounder Liam Smith from Last January.
Manny Pacquiao and Kell Brook, recently retired older fighters, are two other options for Benn’s comeback fight. For Hearn to have chosen Eubank Jr over those guys, he feels it’s still sellable.
In the old days, promoters would wait for a fighter to avenge a loss before attempting to make a mega-fight, but things have changed.
Hearn says he hopes to “finalize” Benn’s unbeaten next fight this week, which will make the 26-year-old Conor’s fans happy.
Eddie isn’t saying why he’s so keen on still making the Benn-Eubank Jr fight, given what happened to Eubank Jr (32-3, 23 KOs) in his massacre loss to ‘Beefy’ Smith.
Hearn must be assuming that the UK boxing public will have amnesia about what happened on that cold, dreary night in Manchester.
On the surface, it seems unthinkable that fans would be willing to purchase the Benn vs. Eubank Jr fight without Chris at least trying to avenge his loss to Liam Smith. How do you peddle a Benn-Eubank Jr fight under these circumstances?
It’s not just Eubank Jr’s knockout loss to Smith that dampens the interest in a fight against Conor. It’s also the news of Benn testing positive twice for the PED clomifene.
Yeah, it’s great that the WBC cleared Benn, mentioning eggs as a possible causative factor, but he hasn’t been cleared by the British Boxing Board of Control [BBCofC] or UKAD. Moreover, Benn doesn’t have a license to fight in the United Kingdom.
“We’ve been in negotiations and talks with Manny Pacquiao, and they clearly want that fight; they’re on every day. Kell Brook wants that fight, but I just feel like the Kell Brook fight is a UK fight that won’t be next,” said Eddie Hearn to iD Boxing about Conor Benn’s next opponent.
“I’d like him to fight Chris Eubank. I just feel there is a lot of unfinished business there; last time was a family legacy fight, and now it’s just pure hatred; it’s a massive fight,” Hearn continued about his eagerness to match Benn against the recently knocked out Eubank Jr.
“I’d like to be able to finalize Conor Benn’s fight this week.”
It won’t be surprising if the Benn vs. Eubank fight brings in dreadfully poor PPV numbers. Will DAZN continue with the previous plan to place the fight on pay-per-view in the U.S. as well as the UK? That’ll be interesting to see.
