CONOR BENN and Chris Eubank Jr reduced boxing to Donald Trump levels of boorish behaviour last week while selling their so-called family feud at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 26.
When Eubank smashed a raw egg into the side of Benn’s face in Manchester, it was a symbolic gesture to humiliate him for claiming it was eating too many eggs which caused him to fail two drug tests.
It led to a mass brawl involving promoters Eddie Hearn, Ben Shalom and the two fighters — and it was only the intervention of heavily muscled security men that prevented it from getting out of hand.
For his trouble, Eubank has been called before the British Boxing Board of Control’s disciplinary committee for bringing the sport into disrepute. Let’s hope he is handed a hefty fine.
This fight was supposed to have taken place 30 months ago but was called off at the last minute because of Benn’s drug test problems.
Along with others, I had condemned the fight as being dangerous to the health of both men.
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We had the distinct possibility of Benn, a small welterweight, going into the ring with a super-middleweight likely to be more than a stone heavier than him.
The vast physical difference between them is highlighted by the fact Benn is three inches shorter than Eubank and will be outreached by five inches.
When it was postponed at the 11th hour, I said in this column that boxing could heave a huge sigh of relief it isn’t facing the possibility of a catchweight catastrophe.
For me, it was a blessing in disguise, as I always had grave doubts about the wisdom of allowing the fight — particularly as Eubank was asked to boil down to a skeletal 157lb.
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At least this time it is being held at the 11st 6lb limit, with a 170lb rehydration clause written into Eubank’s contract.
This fight had no validity then and has no validity now.
It is purely a money-making gimmick based on the fact Benn’s dad Nigel and Eubank’s father, also Chris, fought each other in two great world title fights in the 1990s.
The two offspring are nowhere near as good as their fathers but I’m not naive enough to realise that, despite my misgivings, there will be a 60,000 sell-out crowd in North London next month.
I often wonder how many who sit at big-fight ringsides worry about the safety of the boxers — particularly if they boo when a referee stops a contest to save someone from serious injury.
Maybe I’m a purist, but boxing should always be a level playing field — it’s dangerous already without adding any unnecessary hazards.
I know the fighters will hate me saying this, because I’m sure they have guaranteed millions, but I wouldn’t be unhappy if Benn and Eubank never did fight each other.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
