CONOR BENN will be instructed to weigh UNDER the 157lb catchweight agreement for his super-fight with Chris Eubank Jr.
Benn and Eubank are set for a DAZN pay-per-view blockbuster on October 8 at the O2 Arena, almost 30 years after their dads’ famous rematch.
Due to their size disparity, the born rivals have agreed to meet between weights.
Eubank Jr, 32, will come down from the 160lb middleweight division, while Benn, 25, jumps up 10lb from his usual welterweight limit.
But his coach Tony Sims revealed he wants the unbeaten contender to actually hit the scales 2lb shy of the catchweight maximum.
Sims told SunSport: “You’d like to have done it at 154 in an ideal world but there’s no such thing as an ideal world.
“Eubank’s people came to us with 157, and when I summarised it, he’s got to get down to 157.
“But that only evens it up as Conor’s got to go up to 157. He probably won’t even go up to 157 on the weigh in, he’ll probably be 155.
“So the fight evens out a little bit like that.”
Eubank, who has campaigned as high as 168lb at super-middleweight, will use every last ounce at his disposal.
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But Sims wants Benn to focus on his lightning speed and movement.
He said: “I think at 155, his speed and his agility will come into play, especially in this fight.
“I want him to be bang on the money and I feel if he comes in too heavy then it will slow him down a little bit.
“So 155 I feel is a good weight for him. He’s still got to work to get down to 155 as well, he’s probably weighing 170 right now anyway.”
The fighting sons will renew the family feud almost three decades after their dads’ 1993 rematch.
Eubank had won a brutal affair three years earlier but the rematch ended in a controversial draw.
Sims was a sparring partner and close friend of Benn’s at the time and the pair have remained close ever since.
He revealed: “Nigel’s been a friend to me for a long time since them days.
“Not just only training alongside each other, we used to go out clubbing with each other as well.
“He’s been a friend for a long time and he put me in charge of his son and I feel like I’ve done a good job looking after him.
“And if I didn’t feel Conor could win this fight, I wouldn’t be putting him in there.”
Sims insisted the time was right for Benn to fight Eubank Jr, who could be entering the backend of his career.
He said: “I don’t believe that Chris Eubank Jr is the fighter that he was four or five years ago.
“I just don’t think he is and I believe Conor’s coming into his prime within the next year or two, so I think it’s a good fight for him to take at this stage in his career.
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“And financially, obviously it’s a hard fight to turn down.
“The British public want to see this fight and you wouldn’t want to see it right at the end of Chris Eubank Jr’s career.
“He’s approaching 33, so you wouldn’t want to see this right at the end of his career. I feel like this is the right time do this fight.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
