Eddie Hearn says negotiations will begin this week for a mega-fight between unbeaten welterweight prospect Conor Benn and middleweight contender Chris Eubank Jr. for December 2nd or 9th.
Hearn is currently looking for a tune-up opponent for Benn (21-0, 14 KOs) to fight at the end of this month to get the cobwebs out. The 26-year-old Benn hasn’t fought since April of last year due to his testing positive for a banned substance.
Hearn says Eubank Jr. vs. Benn will be a “Monster” fight in the UK, and just behind the kind of attention that Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury would receive.
For people outside of the UK, it’s difficult to imagine Eubank Jr-Benn being one worth getting excited about. Benn has never fought a top-tier welterweight, and he’ll likely never win a world title in his career.
As for Eubank Jr., he’s in the same boat. He’s never fought a top-level guy during his 12-year career, and at 33, he probably will never win a world title.
Benn & Eubank Jr. are a couple of fighters who are popular in the UK because of their famous dads rather than for what they’ve done in their careers, which is precious little.
“I texted Kalle [Sauerland] on the morning. I said, ‘Please win or lose well,'” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV about what he told Chris Eubank Jr.’s promoter last Saturday before his fight with Liam Smith.
“The Eubank fight, if he lost well, the Eubank-Benn fight, big fight. If he won, which he did, the Eubank-Benn fight is absolutely huge. We just need to move forward and f**k what people think because no one is looking at it with a clear head anyway.
“So, we’re going to try and make that fight, and we’re going to meet this week. Eubank has got options, Conor has got options. Let’s be honest. That’s the biggest fight for both of them by a mile.
“Is that fight bigger than AJ against Fury? Not in my opinion, but I’ll tell you what. It ain’t a bad second. It’s a close second. It’s an absolute monster, and we’ll be doing everything we can to make that fight.
“We’re having conversations with the Board of having Conor box on September 30th, which they haven’t rejected, and those conversations are ongoing. He [Benn] has the option. He’s licensed in America. He’s not suspended anywhere, and the Board is happy for him to fight in Orlando. They’re not going to object to it.
“They’re not going to say he can’t fight because they can’t because he’s not suspended. Ideally, we’d like for him to fight before he goes into that huge fight, which will be in December,” Hearn continued about the 26-year-old Benn.
“It doesn’t even have to be a big fight. Just go out there [in September] and dust the cobwebs off before you have a career-defining fight, and that’s something that we have to decide this week,” said Hearn.
