By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn has lined up the Middle East as a backup location to place the Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn fight on December 23rd if he can’t stage it in the UK.
Benn is currently not allowed to fight in the UK, and the chances are slim that will change by December 23rd.
There’s no word whether Benn & Eubank Jr. will be getting huge dough by staging the fight in the Middle East, as that’s where aging guys like Tyson Fury are making huge money at this late stage of his career.
It’s frustrating for Hearn because he badly wants to stage the fight between Benn & Eubank Jr. in the UK, as there’s a ton of money to make by having it take place there. Also, staging it in the UK will increase the popularity of the two fighters, so they can continue to make lots of dough for their fights.
Hearn told MailSport that the Eubank Jr-Benn fight could take place in the Middle East on December 23rd if it can’t take place in the UK, which is likely to be the case.
“The fight is so much bigger than before for many reasons,” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing about the Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn clash.
“Firstly, when Eubank got beat by [Liam] Smith, I feel like the [Benn vs. Eubank Jr.] fight got a little bit smaller, but when he won the rematch, the fight became bigger.
“The controversy, the people talking about Conor, the opinion, the love, the hate, whatever it could be. The things that Eubank has said, Conor has taken it really badly and personally, and so has Nigel.
“So, you see, the first fight, it was Eubank-Benn, it was the rivalry. Both guys, they knew about the history, they knew about the family rivalry, but they never really disliked each other,” Hearn said about Conor & Eubank Jr.
“Now, with all the noise, with all the names, with all the history comes hatred, and that makes the fight so much bigger.”
Last September, Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) resumed his stalled career, beating little-known junior middleweight Rodolfo Orozco by a ten-round decision. Benn took a lot of punishment against Orozco and was lucky that his opponent had little power.
The performance by Benn showed that he’s not built to fight at 154 and that he would need to make massive improvements in his game if he hopes to capture a world title at 147.
It’s unclear whether that’s even something that Benn cares about, though, as he’s making good coin fighting nobodies in the UK. His fight with Eubank Jr. will make him millions.
Their careers were boosted by being born to British world champions Nigel Benn & Chris Eubank, allowing them to earn a lot of money they otherwise wouldn’t have made.
The 34-year-old middleweight contender Eubank Jr. has never won a world title, and likely never will. He doesn’t seem overly motivated to capture a belt, who can blame him?
He’s making money hand over fist fighting British fighters and doesn’t need to try to win a world title to continue to have the green stuff roll kin. The same with Conor Benn.
Eubank Jr. vs. Benn is a domestic-level celebrity type of fight involving two fighters with limited talent, but it’ll attract attention in the UK.
