Back in the 1980’s two British boxers became entangled in their destinies in the way only boxing can allow. They were Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn. One a suave and stylish orator who mimicked his slick words outside of the ring with slick work within it. Nigel Benn was a wilder, meaner and madder kind of fighter. He famously put a man in a coma who would never quite recover.
Their tied destinies have now passed down to their progeny. Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn. Much like their parents, Eubank is the slicker fighter, and bigger too. Conor Benn unfortunately has the taint of a failed drug test in his past. His feature weapon the power he can generate from his smaller but not less fierce physique.
To make the fight work at a weight that both men could reach, Conor Benn had to jump up two weight classes while in the run up to the fight it seemed clear that Eubank was struggling with a brutal weight cut. On fight night it was clear that Chris was bigger. But it was Conor who would come out and be the aggressor in the beginning.
Armed with scary speed and a just as frightening overhand right Conor Benn had his man wobbled early on. But the older pugilist was not altogether deterred and began to take control over the middle and later rounds, often talking to his opponent with the confidence of a man who has been there before. In that room that Muhammad Ali spoke about in his book.
The AI judge had it going to Eubank at round 8 and from what I saw Eubank was the better boxer, but the difference came in the power. Although Benn may have been smaller, he ate the copious amount of punches fed to him by Eubank and seemed to respond with the harder blows. After the fight the headlines didn’t mention who had won but the fact that Eubank Jr had gone directly to the hospital.
The back and forth nature of the fight and some very exciting exchanges punctuated by skilled flurries and combinations – primarily from Eubank, but matched with eagerness by Benn – made it an incredibly exciting show. The rounds from 8 onward were some of the most exciting in recent boxing history. Chris outlanded Benn but Conor could not be stopped and returned fire at every opportunity. The accuracy of his shots was exposed as lacking when compared to Chris’ in the slow motion replays. At ring side the fathers watched on as intrigued as the other sixty-seven thousand people in attendance.
Although Eubank was looking at the clock in the 11th round and Benn looked much less crisp in his movements than he had at the start of the fight, neither man was willing to leave the ring without having given it everything they were capable of. The older, more experienced Eubank took charge and although he was accurate and served as much mustard on each of his punches as he could, even when Conor Benn looked at his delirious worst, his body and brain would not let him go down.
Both men spent every ounce of energy they had so that in the last 15 seconds the crowd were upstanding and loudly applauding the effort exerted by the two combatants.
After the fight Eubank Sr was seen speaking to Conor Benn in the ring while Nigel Benn went to speak to Eubank Jr. It’s known that the Eubanks are not the closest family as the attitudes and egos of the men involved have ground against each other over the years, but it was good to see the two embrace when the result was announced. Chris Eubank Jr won by unanimous decision and rightly so. There was apparently a rematch clause in the fight contract so we can look forward to another match up. For those who enjoy the pugilistic arts it’s a tasty prospect.
