Eddie Hearn says he met with Conor Benn this week to decide whether to fight in July or wait until August or September for the “biggest” match.
Many fans believe Hearn’s big name that he had for the 25-year-old Benn’s August or September fight will be Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner, Robert Guerrero, or Mikey Garcia.
All three of those fighters are shot and have been for many years. Hearn would be counting on the older fans that remember those fighters during their heyday 10+ years ago to get excited at seeing one of them fight Benn.
Benn (21-0, 14 KOs) wants Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman, but it remains to be seen if Hearn can reel in that big fish. The 33-year-old Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs) only rarely fights, and he’s adamant about only wanting a big-money title shot against Errol Spence Jr. or Terence Crawford.
Unless Hearn can find the kind of money that Thurman would make fighting Spence or Crawford, it’s likely he’ll stay on the couch and continue to wait.
Hearn states that the three or four opponents that they’re considering will have boxing fans “frothing” at the mouth. He mentioned former WBC/WBO 140-lb champion Jose Ramirez as being one of the fighters that he’s in talks with for Benn’s next fight.
If it’s Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs), that might fall short of getting fans “frothing” at the mouth, as he looked average losing to Josh Taylor last year. He also wasn’t overly impressive in his wins over Viktor Postol, Maurice Hooker, Jose Zepeda, Antonio Orozco, and Amir Imam.
“I had a meeting with Conor yesterday, and we’re weighing up if you have a fight in July or if you go into the biggest fight possible in August or September,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social on welterweight contender Conor Benn’s next fight.
“There were three or four names that were bandied around, which will get everybody absolutely frothing at the mouth. I won’t mention on here because we’re negotiating at the moment.
“It’s likely he’ll go straight into a big one next. I’m talking big, big, like the stabilizers are off. We’ll see what happens. Obviously, we have the July 9th date. That could be Conor, or it could be [Derek] Chisora. We’ll decide over the next couple of days. Conor is ready.
“If you listen to Conor Benn and you know what he wants, maybe it’s time to let him go and let him spread his wings and dive straight in with the real big boys,” said Hearn.
