Whatever demons Conor Benn had faced in the lead-up to his rematch with Chris Eubank Jnr – and there had been many of them – Saturday saw him tuck all of them in, put them to bed and walk away with no need to give them another thought ever again.
Few of us encounter even a single moment in our lifetimes so flush with the promise of redemption and closure as that Benn received at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London, and fewer still are able to make good on them. With a grand 12-round unanimous decision triumph over his rival, Benn redeemed himself in the ring, cast new glory on the family crest and rounded full circle with his father, Nigel Benn, the former two-weight world champion whose decades-old rivalry with Chris Eubank Snr has been the constant backdrop to the sons’ recent quarrel.
It’s impossible to overemphasize the mixture of joy and relief that seemed to wash over Benn in the ring as he submitted to DAZN’s postfight interview while his father stood nearby. “How’s it feel?” the younger Benn said, repeating back the question asked of him. He paused for dramatic effect, then turned to the old man, who years ago had lost and drawn with Eubank Snr in their two meetings. “I got one on you, Nige! I got one on you, mate!”
Both of the Benn men exclaimed, Nigel raising his hands high overhead and Conor smacking his gloves into his father’s palms. No one has ever been more jubilant over being one-upped.
“I’m going to get it,” Nigel said jokingly. “He's got one up on me, so now I'm going to get it.
“But I'm so proud of what he done tonight, and he sticked to his game plan: He worked the body. You know, I can't fault what he done. Unanimous decision. He done what he had to do. Now he can drop back down to 147, win the WBC, get rid of the Intercontinental stuff, grab the real belt. Proud of you son. Well done, mate.”
Soon to follow into the ring was Caroline Jackson – Nigel’s wife and Conor’s mother – who caught her husband’s eye but slipped in behind her son. When father slung an arm around mother and tapped Conor on the shoulder, the son finally turned to see both his parents beaming back at him. After months of testosterone- and pride-driven churn between two generations of Benn and Eubank men – dating back to the promotion ahead of Eubank’s win over Benn in April – it was a welcome moment of tenderness.
“I didn’t see you there. When’d you sneak in?” Conor said, drawing his mother in tightly.
“I’m so proud of you,” she told him.
With the fight ended and the hatchet buried – “Done and finished, it’s over,” Benn declared the rivalry – both fighters were magnanimous, and Benn especially showed an appreciation for the connections not only within the families involved but also those between them.
“Listen, this wouldn’t have been what it was without Chris – and our dads, most of all,” Benn said. “This is generational, this has never been done before in history. So credit to Chris. Credit to Chris, man – that’s all I got to say. Thanks for sharing a ring with me.”
In the aftermath, any remaining ill will or angst that plagued Benn – which once seemed to soak into his very bones – had evaporated. He had closed the book on the rivalry, embraced Eubank Jnr at center ring – “not bad for two silver spoon kids, eh?” he cracked – and helped balance the ledger of his father’s boxing legacy, in a fashion, while ultimately making peace with the man.
“That's all that matters,” Conor said. “I come in here tonight, and all that matters is my dad, my old man, the family feud. There was a lot of pressure on me to settle it tonight. I felt the pressure – not from the world, not from anyone. But I just wanted to do the family name proud. And I've completed it, mate. I've completed it, mate. Forget everything else. It will forever be history.”
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
