Eubank Jr., Benn set to add chapter to British boxing's greatest rivalry
35 years after their fathers fought first of their two legendary bouts, the sons finally meet in mega fight for family pride, national bragging rights
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There is no title at stake and the fight has no bearing on pound-for-pound rankings, but there is family pride and legacy at stake, British bragging rights, and a whole lot of bad blood, making the anticipation for the long-awaited showdown between bitter rivals Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn as great as any in British boxing history.
Although Eubank and Benn have developed a seemingly legitimate hatred for each other through the long and winding road to get to their much anticipated fight, the genesis dates back a generation.
It was 35 years ago when their legendary fathers, two-division champions Chris Eubank Sr. and Nigel Benn, engaged in the first of their two epic world title fights — Eubank’s ninth-round knockout to win the WBO middleweight title in a 1990 upset and a draw in their 1993 rematch meant to unify the WBC and WBO super middleweight titles — that will forever be etched in British boxing lore.
Now it is their sons who will do battle to the backdrop of that history and their own that has developed, especially after the first of Conor Benn’s two positive Voluntary Anti-Doping Association drug tests for the performance-enhancing drug Clomiphene came to light and caused the bout to be canceled during fight week 2½ years ago.
Benn blamed his dirty test results on contaminated eggs, hence the reason Eubank selected a raw egg as his weapon of choice to smash across the face of an unsuspecting Benn when they faced off at their kickoff news conference in February.
But after the cancelation of the Oct. 8, 2022 fight that was supposed to take place at The O2 in London, Eubank moved on and Benn, fighting British regulators every step of the way, ultimately served a suspension. It has all been chronicled in extreme detail, but the end result was always going to be the same — the inevitable rescheduling of the bout once Benn was relicensed in the United Kingdom.
And so it is here now. They will square off in a 12-round middleweight bout on Saturday (DAZN PPV, 12 p.m. ET, $24.99) in the main event of Turki Alalshikh’s Ring magazine card at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which has already been announced as a 62,000-seat sellout.
“This is the biggest fight in British boxing outside of the heavyweight division since (Carl) Froch and (George) Groves, but this has something very different,” said Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn, Benn’s promoter, who also promoted the two Froch-Groves bouts in 2013 and 2014. “This has an appeal to all kinds of demographics, all kinds of age groups. Everyone knew their fathers and everyone knows who they are.