During a recent joint-press conference between Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank’s (Senior) – part of a promotional tour where they discuss their pasts and stories prior and after their boxing careers, the two longtime rivals sat together to discuss the events surrounding their sons Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. Eubank Jr.’s grueling weight cutting prior to his canceled bout with Conor Benn, and the latter’s alleged PED use were the main topics discussed on the evening.
“I’d hang him out.” Nigel Benn responded to what his reaction would be if Conor Benn was found guilty of using illegal substances to enhance his performance. “I’d say: ‘Son, I love you. But you’re on your own.’
“But I know my son.” Benn continued. “He’s got my DNA. He’s got my DNA. My son, he would never do that. But there’s so much that’s gonna come out now and the only thing I can say, I just pray to God that the apology is as loud as the way they’ve already convicted him now.”
Nigel Benn admitted that, at first, he thought Eubank Sr.’s concerns about the dangers of his son cutting weight was exaggerated: “Me and Chris (Eubank Sr.) were doing zoom call, and Chris was saying to me: ‘my son can’t make the weight, my son can’t do this, my son can’t make 157 lbs.’ “
“And I said, I didn’t choose the weight. Your son chose the weight. And so me and Chris were going back and forth, back and forth, and Chris was so adamant about him (Eubank Jr.) not making weight (saying) ‘it was gonna hurt him, he won’t be strong, I’m gonna stop this and stop that’. And I thought to myself, but it was your son that made the weight!” Nigel explained.
“We kept on going on, kept on going on, and then I saw a picture of Chris Eubank Jr. You’ll find it on the (inter)net or whatever in the papers, and I looked at the picture and I saw him (Eubank Jr.). His face was not there, and his body is emaciated. And I sent Chris (Eubank Sr.) a text saying ‘sorry Chris, I didn’t realize what you were saying’. And then I asked Chris I said ‘please forgive me, Chris’, because I honestly believe, if my son (Conor Benn) had fought Chris now, I believe – personally – that Conor would have hurt him just like what happened to Gerald McClellan. And I know my Heavenly Father said: ‘ it’s not gonna happen’. It wasn’t nobody’s fault, but I believe Jesus stopped this fight (from) happening because I don’t want nothing in my son’s head saying ‘you are on drugs!’. God said ‘this is not happening’. Not until I clear my son’s name.”
“And I said to Conor: ‘if you do fight him, he’s not fighting at 157. I want you to fight him at 160. Because I wouldn’t want my son to going through the same thing I went through with Gerald McClellan.”
Gerald McClellan is a former American professional boxer who suffered a career-ending injury after his fight with Nigel Benn, when it was discovered that he had accumulated severe brain damage. Though his fight with Benn isn’t considered to be the decisive factor of him suffering brain trauma as reports have indicated he had been suffering from related injuries a year prior, his fight with Benn proved to be somewhat of a catalyst that would hamper him for the rest of his life.
Chris Eubank Sr. gave his own thoughts on the whole weight-cutting affair and Conor Benn’s failed drug test.
“You can’t let my son come down to 157 because we know Michael Watson happened, Gerald McClellan happened. Please don’t do this to me.” Chris said, referring to the zoom call that Nigel Benn made mention of. “He (Nigel) said my son (Chris Eubank Jr.) is his own man, he signed a contract. So that’s it. Nigel told me, we had to pay a 3000 pound fine. And I said ‘I’m happy to pay the fine but please don’t do this to my son’.”
“He’s (Eubank Jr.) 33 years old. When he was 26 he could’ve actually gone down to 157, at 26 you can. But at 33, you can come down, but then you’re gonna be beat by the person in front of you because all you want is hot air. You think you can, but you’re not listening or he wasn’t listening to his dad who had been there, and I’ve named them. And I’ve been hurt. So I know, but he won’t listen, he won’t listen. So you know what I did? What do you think I did?” Eubank Sr. continued.
“I never had anything to do with it. I didn’t say anything about it.” Sr. explained in reference to the fight. “I didn’t know what was going on.”
While Conor Benn is currently under investigation for alleged doping, Chris Eubank Jr. has apparently already moved on and is currently hoping to face Gennady Golovkin as his next opponent, according to Kalle Sauerland, Eubank Jr.’s promoter. Billy Joe Saunders and Kell Brook are also considered prospective opponents for Eubank Jr.
If Benn is found to be guilty of the use of performance-enhancing drugs he might be banned for four years and not return until he is 30 years of age. The last boxer to be publicly banned for a number of years was Jarrell Miller. Miller was found to have taken a multitude of substance, including EPO and HGH prior to his world title bout against Anthony Joshua which was slated for June 19 in 2019. As a result, Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller had been out for nearly four years – since his last fight with Bogdan Dinu in 2018 – until recently making his return on July the 23rd in 2022 against Argentinian journeyman Ariel Esteban Bracamonte.
