Two-and-a-half years after their catchweight clash was set, then dramatically cancelled on fight week after news of a failed drug test, Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn will now box in a two-fight series later this calendar year.
Eubank Jr vs. Benn: Details emerge before April 26 first bout
REGARDLESS of who wins their middleweight contest, slated for April 26, there will be an immediate rematch by the end of December as part of a two-fight deal.
Dan Rafael of Fight Fans Unite first reported this latest development, taking both out of world championship contention for 2025 to mirror the Chris Eubank Sr vs. Nigel Benn feud from the 1990s, though with an expedited timeline.
As the Ring reported yesterday, the first bout will take place on a spring date at the height of the sporting calendar – likely April 26 – at a London location, with the 62,850-seater Tottenham Hotspur Stadium now the frontrunner destination.
Wembley will play host to a pair of FA Cup football semi-finals that same weekend as it has traditionally done every year since 2008, one on Saturday and the other 24 hours later, so will be unavailable.
Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk 1 in September 2021 and Tyson Fury vs. Dereck Chisora 3 in Dec. 2022 both took place in North London after the coronavirus-enforced lockdown and there has long been a suggestion this encounter was fitting for a stadium show too, given their illustrious fighting fathers and the increasing tension which built after Benn’s positive tests for clomiphene were uncovered.
Career welterweight contender Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) repeatedly stressed last month he’d be happy boxing Mario Barrios (29-2-1, 18 KOs) for the WBC world title if they couldn’t agree terms while Eubank’s promoter Ben Shalom told The Ring they had contingency plans of their own to provide Eubank with a middleweight title shot against WBA titleholder Erislandy Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs).
A ten-pound rehydration clause is in place for the same-day weight-check, meaning neither can weigh more than 170 pounds on the morning of their fight.
Memorably last time, Eubank Jr agreed to a 157-pound catchweight – he hadn’t boiled his body down to that weight since he was an 18-year-old amateur and many felt the quick turnaround impacted him during a surprise fourth-round stoppage loss by Liam Smith three months later.
Since being cleared to box in the UK again by the UK Anti-Doping panel last November, that set the wheels in motion for negotiations to resume after the 28-year-old’s deliberate scouting mission in Riyadh the month prior, where Eubank Jr returned with a seventh-round stoppage win over Kamil Szeremeta.
The pair negotiated directly with Turki Alalshikh, thus rekindling a rivalry many thought wouldn’t ever materialise after the original debacle.
Picture source: Getty Images
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