Once again, Eubank Jr.-Benn signed, sealed, delivered for April
Long-awaited British mega fight on more than 2 years after being abruptly canceled during fight week due to Benn's failed drug test
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Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn signed to fight each on Tuesday in an all-British mega fight that will take place 2½ years after their encounter was originally scheduled but abruptly canceled due to a failed Benn drug test.
Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh was at the forefront of getting the deal done, meeting with the fighters and their teams in recent days while he was in London, where among the various things on his to-do list was to wrap up the middleweight bout that will continue the intense rivalry their fathers, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank Sr., had in a pair of popular world title battles, a 1990 middleweight title bout (Eubank TKO9) and a 1993 super middleweight title fight (a split draw).
“Eubank Jr. vs. Benn done in April, London,” Alalshikh posted on social media. “Soon I will announce the day and the location.”
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Alalshikh added that he would “push” for the price of the pay-per-view in the United Kingdom to be only 19.99 GBP “for the fans, with tough undercard.”
While the site is not set, the date for the scheduled 12-round fight is April 26 and it is the first bout of a two-fight deal regardless of the April winner, with the rematch due to take place by the end of December, sources with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite.
Benn, a welterweight/junior middleweight, will move up to fight Eubank in the bout contracted at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds.
The biggest issue getting the deal done was a re-hydration clause that Eubank, the naturally bigger man who has fought many times at super middleweight, resisted but ultimately agreed to. There will be a weight check on the morning of the bout at which neither fighter can exceed 170 pounds without severe financial penalties.
After Benn posted a photo to social media on Tuesday night of him signing the contract, Eubank responded to it, writing that Benn was “signing his own death sentence.”
Benn later posted, “You are done, Chris Eubank Jr.”
Expect the trash to only intensify through the promotion after all the bitterness between the two.
Benn (23-0, 14 KOs), 28, and Eubank (34-3, 25 KOs), 35, were initially scheduled to fight in a 157-pound catch weight bout on Oct. 8, 2022 at The O2 in London, but the card was notoriously canceled during fight week when Benn had one of his two positive Voluntary Anti-Doping Association drug tests for the performance-enhancing drug Clomiphene come to light.
Benn denied knowingly taking any banned substances but he was barred from boxing in the U.K. and a protracted legal battle with U.K. Anti-Doping and the British Boxing Board of Control followed. He was allowed to fight twice in the United States because of a technicality before the case was finally settled and his suspension in the U.K. was lifted in November, paving the way for him to be re-licensed and permitted to box again in the U.K.
Benn last fought in the second of his two U.S. fights last February, scoring a lopsided 12-round decision over New Yorker Peter Dobson in Las Vegas.
Since the initial fight with Benn was canceled, Eubank has fought three times. He faced former junior middleweight titlist Liam Smith twice, getting knocked out in the fourth round of an upset in their first bout in January 2023 followed by a 10th-round knockout victory in their immediate rematch in September 2023.
Most recently, Eubank ended a 13-month layoff on Oct. 12 and scored four knockdowns against former middleweight title challenger Kamil Szeremeta in a one-sided seventh-round knockout on the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitry Bivol undercard in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
After the bout, Benn, who was ringside, entered the ring and confronted Eubank to get the hype started once again for their inevitable showdown.
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Photos: Eubank-Benn: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing; Benn signing: Team Benn
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Good fight long time coming