By Elliot Worsell
LIKE a pyramid scheme, or booze at a party, or flyers on the Vegas strip, it will be forced on you. Whether you show any interest or not, it will be all they talk about at the start of this year and, when talking about it, they will have you convinced it’s what you want without you having any say in the matter. You’ll hear stuff like this: “It’s the fight the whole country has been waiting for.” Or this: “It’s been years in the making.” If you then dare to point out the black cloud hanging over it, which remains, or even the original issues pertaining to the difference in weight between the boxers, the sellers will laugh it off and tell you to cheer up. They will ask you, “Yeah, but don’t you remember the Nineties? Don’t you remember their old men? Benn? Eubank?”
Some, because they are suckers for nostalgia, easily persuaded, or simply exasperated, will give in and give the promoters exactly what they want. But that isn’t to say we all have to. In fact, with enough time having passed (this fight was originally scheduled for October 2022, remember), we should now have a fair idea of whether we want to see Conor Benn, son of Nigel, and Chris Eubank Jnr, son of Chris Snr, share a ring anytime soon.
They say it has grown bigger with time, but the truth is that it has grown only in terms of the controversy surrounding it. As an actual fight, the contest, if anything, has shrunk in magnitude and importance in the past 12 months. After all, not only has Benn, for obvious reasons, been inactive (fighting only once since April 2022), but Eubank Jnr found himself stopped in three rounds by Liam Smith last January and, despite reversing that loss in his next fight, has shown signs of possible regression. In short, while this fight was never exactly hot per se, it is now, as a competitive spectacle, about as cold as it can possibly get. Yes, Benn is back in some capacity, and yes, Eubank Jnr won his last fight, but time, alas, has not been kind to either man.
Chris Eubank (Ian Walton Matchroom Boxing)
The big question, then, is this: Does that even matter? Does it matter whether the fight is a good one as far as competition goes? Or is its infamy so potent and sellable that it is really all either boxer cares about? More importantly, is that all the people promoting it – that is, pushing it on us – care about? Do they see pound signs beside the word “controversy” while the rest of us see only red flags?
This fight, to me, and long before Conor Benn found himself in a spot of bother, always seemed nothing but a cynical exercise in exploiting nostalgia. Not only that, it seemed an admission on the part of both boxers that they were unwilling to back themselves to win world titles the hard and proper way and beat the best fighters in their respective divisions. Tempting though it would have been to cross paths and cash in on a rivalry and brand established by their fathers, the greater hope was that they would go their separate ways and try to achieve what they could with the skills and privileges at their disposal. That way they truly would be standing on their own two feet, stepping out of the shadows, and creating a path without the need for Daddy to open doors or check that the coast is clear.
Instead of that, they both saw the business opportunity and they went for it. Fine. Fair enough. Their right. Yet now, given the pig’s ear they all made of this business opportunity, as tragic a fumbling as anything we have witnessed in boxing for years, maybe it’s for the best that all involved cut their losses, tuck their tails between their legs, and move on. Otherwise, if this fight still isn’t over the line in the first quarter of 2024, where exactly does it leave them and where exactly does it leave us? Are we then fated to all be haunted by this gross experiment for the entire year, just as we were for the whole of 2023? Does it just simply never go away? No vaccination. No medication. No cure.
To some extent, too, there’s an argument to be made from Conor Benn’s point of view that the best way to avoid everything that happened in 2022 is to steer clear of all associations, meaning Chris Eubank Jnr. The money, a huge incentive, will always pull him in that direction, of course it will, but with that comes further scrutiny, more questions, and a tougher challenge in terms of moving on and progressing with his career. Go elsewhere, on the other hand, and Conor Benn will soon find an audience who either don’t know what happened when he was meant to fight Chris Eubank Jnr in 2022 or just don’t care. Better yet, he can carry on like nothing ever occurred, his desire from the very start, and rewrite a narrative without having someone else – namely Chris Eubank Jnr – remind him at every turn of his alleged transgression and all that transpired because of it.
In other words, if Conor Benn wants a massive payday, there is every justification for pursuing Chris Eubank Jnr as relentlessly and desperately as he is currently doing. However, if it is ultimately freedom Benn wants, the key to his release is to be found not in the pocket of his dad’s old rival’s son but instead in those not yet picked.