Amid talk of the Chris Eubank Jr fight being back on, Conor Benn has been busy swapping insults with Josh Taylor. Just who Benn will fight upon his ring return (from you know what) remains to be seen.
There is talk from promoter Ben Shalom that Eubank Jr will take his delayed return fight with Liam Smith in August or September, Smith having stopped Eubank at the start of the year but then suffering injury that has delayed the rematch Eubank is entitled to due to his rematch clause, so if this fight happens, Benn could wind up facing Taylor instead.
Maybe.
Benn has yet to get his British license back, while Taylor will be taking a decent break after last Saturday’s loss to Teofimo Lopez. But it seems Benn and Taylor have some interest in fighting each other.
“Josh Taylor I’d happily give you your third beating on the spin. Don’t play with me,” Benn wrote on instagram.
“Must be the road rage kicking in? Or is that the pregnancy hormones?” Taylor shot back.
Later, in speaking with IFL TV, former unified 140 pound champ Taylor, who said after his loss to Lopez that he plans a move up to welterweight, said he would “love” to give Benn “a good spanking.”
“That’d be a great fight,” Taylor said of a Benn clash. “Especially if he can make welterweight at the moment now. He looked a bit big now. Just the other day he was 154 or something. I’d love to give him a good spanking after everything that had happened and come to light and stuff.”
A Taylor-Benn fight would almost certainly attract a good deal of fan attention, but again, will that talked-of Benn-Eubank Jr fight happen instead? There has been talk of a September 23 date, the fight to take place in Abu Dhabi if Benn cannot get licensed to box in the UK in time.
So, as things stand, we could see: Smith-Eubank II, Benn-Eubank, or Taylor-Benn. We think.