The Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn fight will be more emotion than tactics, and “an absolute rumble”, says former world champion and Sky Sports boxing expert Johnny Nelson…
This is real. This is a real argument.
I’m old enough to remember their fathers fighting each other – the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The way this has gone so far, the build-up, the animosity between both fighters, this isn’t fake. It’s not pretend.
Conor is angry, upset. He’s naturally that kid with a chip on his shoulder. He’ll want to fight you in a phone booth and that’s why Chris will always wind up Conor.
His ‘smug’ intelligence, the way he controls the time when he delivers a sentence to tell you about yourself and Conor is just biting at the bit thinking: ‘I’m having you, I’m going to get you the second I get my hands on you.’
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Eubank Jr says other fighters have behaved much worse at press conferences and been fined far less than his £100,000 punishment
Chris doesn’t care. Chris is like, ‘I’m just going to be me’ – just like his old man.
I think anybody getting an egg cracked on their head, regardless of the embarrassment of it, they’re going to be a little upset and the animosity to do that, to humiliate him like that, that’s why security will have to be there whenever these two are in a room together. In fact, in a building together.
They both have a massive ego. They both have unbelievable self-belief and they both have a family name to protect and stand over.
Matt Macklin provided his thoughts after it was announced that Eubank Jr’s crossover fight with Benn will be broadcast on Sky Sports Box Office
It’s going to be an absolute sell-out and one of those fights that you could put anywhere and you would hear the rumblings left, right and centre.
I know sometimes the public think it’s all faked to sell a fight. This is real. And that’s why sometimes the insults, the digs, it gets personal. They’re talking about families, they’re talking about personal issues and that’s when you know there’s no coming back from that.
To see how this fight plays out, I think it’ll be more emotion than tactics when it comes to the fight.
That’s why I’d be surprised if the first six rounds are not an absolute rumble.
Watch Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 26 live on Sky Sports Box Office
