Chris Eubank Jr has said he is “too elite” to lose to Conor Benn as he looks forward to a potential “one-of-a-kind” showdown with his British rival.
Eubank and Benn were scheduled to fight in October 2022, but the fight was canceled after Benn tested positive for the banned drug clomiphene.
Benn, who is currently serving an interim suspension, insisted he would eventually be cleared to return to the ring.
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Ben said he was facing the ‘toughest fight’ of his career to keep his integrity as he returns to the ring while awaiting his drug ban hearing at the British Boxing Board of Control next month.
Eubank Jr, whose father Chris was pictured beating Benn’s father Nigel in two blockbuster fights in the 1990s, expects Conor Benn to regain box-rights status before he fights himself.
After the fallout from the canceled fight, he now wants to “punish” his fellow Briton when they finally meet, but Benn is adamant he will step up his performance for what he says will be one of the greatest fights the sport has ever seen. The personal history of the competitors and even my father’s in-ring classic from 30 years ago.
Eubank, who returned from 13 months of inactivity with a seventh-round knockout of Kamil Szeremeta on October 12, said of Benn: “Punish him so severely that he won’t want to box again after he gets in the ring with me.”
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After Eubank Jr’s impressive win over Kamil Szeremeta, Benn broke into the ring and vowed to stop him within three rounds.
“The kid is confident, but he’s never been there with elite level fighters, technicians, people who know how to hurt him.
“It’s all well and good for him to say what he can do, but we won’t know how strong and great Conor Benn is until we can really test him with someone like me.
“I think what I bring to the table is so elite and so much superior in terms of my experience, my skills, my strength, my speed. I think it’s all going to be too much for him. He’ll tell you differently, but I think it’s “It would be a serious wake-up call for him.”
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Eubank Jr returned to the ring in style, dropping Szeremeta four times en route to a seventh-round stoppage.
Eubank claims his long-awaited showdown with Benn is scheduled for early 2025 under Saudi General Entertainment Authority Chairman Turki Alalshikh, who is now staging a showdown on a much larger scale, with Benn taking full control, vowing not to meet his adversary. He said he had it. At catchweight.
He added: “(When the fight was postponed) I was devastated, annoyed, so angry but looking back it was one of the best things that could have happened in my career.
“Now the fights are three times bigger, the pay is four times bigger and the terms are all on my side. There are no promoters taking a piece of the pie, no people giving me less money.
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Eubank Jr strode to the ring to his usual Dr Dre theme song and jumped over the ropes in Riyadh.
“He has no space, no power. He has lost it all.
“There is no compromise. The fight is a middleweight fight and it’s a matter of take it or leave. He can’t leave.”
Eubank Jr continued: “This fight will be unique, nothing like that has ever happened in boxing.
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Eubank Jr had some choice words for rival Benn after the pair clashed at the fighter hotel.
“There is no fighter whose father was a world champion and fought in a large-scale fight with the whole country watching 30 years ago.
“Now my two sons will grow up and fight as elite fighters. That has never happened before and it never will happen again. It’s a huge deal.”
“Fighting me in front of 90,000 people at Wembley or in a stadium in Saudi Arabia broadcast around the world is a completely different animal.
“It will unleash a beast that I cannot take lightly. I think it will be savage. It is one of the best fights in British boxing, world boxing has seen it for quite some time because it is real. This is not a pretender.
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Eubank Jr is targeting a megamatch against Canelo Alvarez and Benn in 2025.
“My father had a history, and now we have a history. So much is at stake: money, pride, legacy, protecting my father’s name, my family’s name. So much is at stake in this fight.”
“Before I went out to fight Kamil, there was a conversation about it in my dressing room (with Turki Alalshikh). He did not wait until the fight was over and told me that this is what he wants.
“He wants Conor Benn in February or May and that’s all he cares about. He’s very interested in that fight, which puts me in an amazing position.”
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