Eddie Hearn wants to wait a little while before letting welterweight contender Conor Benn face the older more experienced David Avanesyan.
Benn will be fighting in December against a still to be determined opponent. We should hear something soon about who Benn will be battling, but hopefully, it’s a step up from his last two opponents Adrian Granados and Samuel Vargas.
Although #8 IBF, #10 WBA, #10 WBC, Benn (19-0, 12 KOs) is ready to face Avanesyan now, Hearn wants to match against other fighters for now.
By next year, Benn should be ready to face Avanesyan (28-3, 16 KOs), as long as he looks good in his next fight or two.
The name that Benn recently mentioned as his next potential opponent is 34-year-old former WBC welterweight champion ‘Vicious’ Victor Ortiz (32-7-3, 25 KOs).
He’s roughly the same age as Avanesyan, but at a different stage. Ortiz is one of those fighters that had a short prime and fell apart after losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2011.
“Yeah, he did,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV on Frank Warren making an offer on the Conor Benn vs. David Avanesyan fight.
“The emails from Queensbury have gone to my junk items not intentionally. Sometimes I see things like that interview. Conor [Benn] actually sent it to me and he went a screenshot.
“I went, ‘I haven’t had that offer.’ I went to my junk items and there they were in my junk items. I got the offer.
“It was nowhere near enough money for the fight, but I’m not going to say that’s not the reason. Number one is, we’re pretty much there for his [Conor Benn] fight for December anyway.
“Number two is, and this is my opinion, Conor will fight anyone tomorrow.
“I think Conor needs another fight before he fights David Avanesyan. David Avanesyan is a world-class welterweight.
“I know that there’s the bravado and all that kind of stuff. When I say to Conor, ‘I think personally, you need at least one, maybe two before you fight a world-class prime welterweight now.’ ‘I don’t, I’ll fight them.’ It’s up to us to give our opinion when you’re progressing a fighter. There’s no shame in it, mate,” said Hearn about his decision to move Benn carefully.
Benn needs a better opponent than Victor Ortiz if he wants to improve enough to be competitive with Avanesyan.
It’s nice that Ortiz is a former 147-lb champion, but that was ten years ago and he’s completely shot at this point.
Ortiz looked terrible in his recent fight against 38-year-old Robert ‘The Ghost’ Guerrero last August. Those two spent the entire fight wrestling and not throwing punches.
Unless Benn wants to take on Avanesyan in a wrestling match next year, he needs to fight someone else rather than Ortiz next.
McKinnon…get him in with McKinnon !