Conor Benn’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, says he can’t wait for him to win on Saturday night against Chris Eubank Jr. so that he can jump through the ropes and “celebrate” with him at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing)
Hearn is predicting that Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) will get an early knockout for him, believing he’ll take care of Eubank Jr. in the same fashion as he did for the string of fighters that he stopped during a hot streak that he had from 2019 to 2022.
The knockouts have dried up completely since 2023, and it’s difficult to see him having any success stopping Eubank Jr. in their 12-round headliner on DAZN PPV. Benn looks like he’s aged in the last three years, and he’s lost his power.
Eubank Jr.’s Chatter
“If you’re not going to let me speak, what’s the point of me being up here? I’m not going to go back and forth with an idiot. So, I just let Mr. Frank Smith up there,” said Eddie Hearn to the media about how he left the stage and had Frank Smith of Matchroom take over his spot after Chris Eubank Jr. didn’t allow him to speak during the final press conference today.
Frank was even more helpless than Hearn had been, trying to get a word in without Eubank Jr. drowning him out with his chatter. It was a classic filibuster move by Eubank Jr. He repeatedly told Smith that he wasn’t going to be able to talk, and that was that.
“Let him [Eubank Jr.] just burn that energy. All of a sudden, he’s like looking at his phone about what to say about me. All of a sudden, I’m not there, and he ain’t got nothing to say about Frank Smith. Just wind him up a little bit. Burn his energy before he goes back to take the final few pounds off.”
Hearn is seeing things that aren’t there with his belief that the substitution of Frank Smith in place of him on stage got Eubank Jr. nervous. He didn’t change a beat with what he was doing, and continued to talk, not allowing Frank to say much of anything. He quit almost immediately rather than try to out-talk Eubank Jr. It was a no-win situation for Smith, and he knew it.
Ringside Celebration
“I’ll be straight through those ropes to celebrate a man I’m very proud of, a man that has been through an unbelievable lot during these last couple of years,” said Hearn about Conor Benn. “I’m not sure 2 1/2 years ago, we would have won this fight.
“Now, everything has been through the resistance, we’re ready. You’re going to get a great show on Saturday night. Billy Joe will be doing the handwraps in Chris Eubank’s dressing room.”
