On April 26, the emergence of Chris Eubank Jnr’s father from a car did something to both Eubank Jnr and the night itself. In retrospect, it lifted both.
The son, hours from fighting Conor Benn, was lifted to new levels of motivation, which he later admitted, while the fight on the horizon was all of a sudden less about controversy and back to being about nostalgia and two names: Benn and Eubank. It was also a surprise to see Eubank Snr, previously absent, accompany his son to his changing room and to the ring that night. It was the kind of surprise capable of upsetting the equilibrium of an opponent, who, until that point, will have felt settled and visualised every possible eventuality and turn the night might take. Suddenly, with Eubank Snr on the scene, Conor Benn had something new to think about. Suddenly, whatever momentum there was to grab at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April had swung back the way of his rival. The stars, for Eubank Jnr, were starting to align. The night was clearly going to be his.
Last night, back at the same venue, the feeling was quite different. This time around the same scene unfolded only we now knew who was about to exit the car with Chris Eubank Jnr. We knew, having already watched the film and encountered the surprise, that his father would be right by his side and that the trick, if that’s what it was in April, was no longer as effective as before.
In fact, if there were any surprises last night they concerned Conor Benn. Consider, for instance, the warm reception he received from the fans inside the stadium when his face appeared on the big screen prior to the fight. In that moment there was an almighty cheer, as though it was now Benn and not Eubank Jnr who had the hearts of the British public. Not even the sight of the Eubanks together could on this occasion dampen the outpouring of love for Benn. Nor could Benn’s checkered history with performance-enhancing drugs and the fact that it is because of him that this rivalry, instigated back in 2022, has stretched deep into 2025. None of that mattered, it seemed. Either it was all irrelevant now, with so much time having passed, or it was simply forgotten, never to be mentioned again.
It wasn’t just the fans. Even Eubank Jnr, once so vocal about Benn’s misdemeanours, had other things on his mind for part two. He had the weight cut, again, which only gets tougher, and he also had stuff going on in his personal life to which he alluded at the end of the fight having won barely a round in the presence of a man he defeated comfortably in April. Maybe it’s true that those things combined rendered him a shell of the fighter we saw seven months ago, or maybe the big surprise had more to do with him exiting the car last night with not only his father, whom he expected, but Father Time.
His own father he could see, of course. But Father Time is something a fighter can only feel – usually when it is too late. Certainly, in the case of Eubank Jnr, it could be suggested that Father Time made himself known throughout the course of the 12 rounds he shared with Benn in north London. If it wasn’t noticeable in his durability, which (just about) held up, it was definitely evident in his footwork, lack of speed, and in his inability to find his timing or move through the gears.
Even early on, when he should have been fresh, Eubank Jnr wore a heaviness at odds with the occasion. He was, rather than energised by it, tired and uninspired. He let Benn, the smaller man, steal the centre of the ring without an argument and was soon watching helplessly as Benn snapped fast and accurate jabs into his face at will. The first two rounds were a cinch for Benn, in fact, and it was only in the third, a more tense round, that Eubank Jnr showed any signs of getting going or making the fight competitive.
But no. By the fourth Benn was comfortable and confident. He now threw punches with more conviction, including a big right hand which Eubank took well but nodded to show it had registered. Another right hand followed in the final minute of the fourth, by which point it was clear Benn’s hand speed and all-round tenacity was going to be an issue for a fighter who had apparently grown old overnight.
Through four rounds Eubank Jnr, the man in question, had landed just seven punches. This, for someone once defined by his stamina, aggression and high output, was a damning indictment of what he is today: a 36-year-old middleweight prepared to sacrifice his body for big money.
Still, that wasn’t Benn’s problem. Nor did he show much sympathy for Eubank Jnr, either. Instead, Benn proceeded to whack his opponent with hard right hands to the body in the fifth and continued to demonstrate an impressive jab, which he threw with his knees slightly bent, the shot launched from the hip. Each time this particular shot landed Eubank Jnr was put back on his heels, the jolt of it etched on his face.
It was obvious, by the sixth, that Eubank Jnr needed to do something meaningful just to regain Benn’s respect. But all he had was a single right hand as Benn came in. It was a good shot, admittedly, yet Benn was too full of beans at that stage to even acknowledge it had landed, much less give Eubank Jnr any distress signal or cause for hope. Rather, he just walked through it, the impact minimal.
In the second half of the fight, it was more of the same, only less surprising. Now the sight of Benn outboxing Eubank Jnr we had come to expect. The same was true of the sight of Benn beating Eubank Jnr to the punch and throwing the heavier and more powerful blows. If anyone was going to get a stoppage, dramatic or otherwise, it was surely going to be Benn, we felt. After all, there was nothing in Eubank Jnr’s hollow arms and forlorn disposition to suggest he had either the energy or strength to unsettle Benn, never mind hurt or knock him out.
Everybody knew it, too. Benn’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, not only knew it but communicated the feeling, standing at ringside to give Benn two thumbs up when they made eye contact in round seven. Benn also knew it. That’s why he smiled back at his promoter and at the end of that round exchanged words with Eubank Jnr before returning, with a spring in his step, to the corner.
In the eighth, meanwhile, Benn appeared eager to end things and head home. Another right of his sent the gum shield flying from Eubank Jnr’s mouth and then, once it was back in, they both frantically traded, with Eubank Jnr finding some rare success with a right of his own.
That, if nothing else, was a warning, one Benn acknowledged. In the next round, the ninth, he nailed Eubank Jnr with a massive one-two and all one could think at that point was that Eubank Jnr was somewhat lucky to be in the ring with a naturally smaller man. Then, in the 10th, Benn returned to the body with jabs and crosses and began to bully Eubank Jnr, the bigger man, up close. This bullying continued in the 11th when Eubank Jnr finally came forward only for Benn to throw him to the canvas in a show of superior strength. Now it seemed Eubank Jnr didn’t even have that: the advantage of being the bigger man; his size, his stature, the root of his confidence.
With all that gone, Benn was having fun at his expense. Not content to just outbox his opponent and level the score, in round 12 he managed to wobble Eubank Jnr with a right behind the ear which ultimately led to Eubank Jnr hitting the canvas and receiving a count. It added a full stop to a rivalry which, for 35 years, has invested heavily in the ellipsis.
“This is the end of the Benn-Eubank saga,” said Benn afterwards, having been awarded a unanimous decision by scores of 119-107, 116-110, and 118-108. “Done and over. This ends here.”
Of the two sons, the feeling is that it is Benn, 24-1 (14 KOs), more than Eubank Jnr, 35-4 (25 KOs), who wants this rivalry to now end. That perhaps owes to the fact that Benn won last night’s fight more convincingly than Eubank Jnr won the pair’s first fight in April. More likely, though, it has something to do with the fact that Benn, at 29, has seven years on Eubank Jnr and is, for now, accompanied to the ring on fight night with just his father and not Father Time. Benn also knows he has options beyond a forced rivalry with the son of his father’s old nemesis and that time, even at 29, is of the essence. He has lost so much of it already, of course.
“I’ve been through hell and back to get to this night,” said Eubank Jnr in the ring. “I tried my best but the kid fought hard, he fought tough. He’s got power, this kid. We put on a show and Conor Benn was the best man tonight. It’s 1-1 and I’ve got to go away and deal with some of the things I’ve been dealing with for a couple of months. Maybe we’ll see each other again. Maybe we won’t.”
Ordinarily, with a rivalry split at one win apiece, it would make sense for there to be a third and deciding fight. However, while this rivalry has been called many things, never has it been ordinary and never has anything to do with it made a whole lot of sense. In fact, without wishing to sound cruel, perhaps the best way for a rivalry such as this to end is with both fighters coming away having experienced the pain of defeat. Even if no lessons were learned per se, and even if certain proverbs were proved incorrect, they did at least both suffer for it. Nobody left unscathed. Nobody got away scot-free. Nobody really won.
