Back in April, Conor Benn gathered all the anger, frustration and bitterness which had built up over the course of two years, then purged them at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the company of Chris Eubank Jnr. It was, he felt, the right approach to that particular fight. He needed to be intense and he truly believed that everything he had recently endured – namely, the fallout from two failed performance-enhancing drug tests (for clomiphene) in 2023 – would give him that intensity and that fire on the night.
He was right, too. On the night Benn promised violence and, together with Eubank Jnr, he duly delivered. There were, throughout the 12 rounds they shared, numerous exchanges, countless shifts in momentum, and genuine drama as the fight drew to a close.
Yet, ultimately, Benn, the smaller man, came up short; losing for the first time as a pro by decision. Only then did he start to calm down, reflect, and reconsider his approach to the fight. Only then did he wonder whether his intensity and impatience to get back in the ring and inflict damage may have somehow contributed to his loss on the night.
“I know I was hurting him because he looked vulnerable in there,” Benn, 23-1 (14 KOs), told Sky Sports’ John Dennen. “He looked like he was one shot away at any given moment. But I never thought in my head [during the fight]: ‘Have I won that round? How many rounds have I won?’ I was so consumed by violence.”
The idea of being “consumed by violence” is an interesting one, especially in the case of someone like Conor Benn; someone who, on the face of it, can function no other way. Often, in fact, Benn, 29, prides himself on his thirst for violence and operates at a pace one would assume can only be generated by that kind of thirst. The thought of him toning things down therefore would seem inconceivable. Maybe even counterproductive.
Then again, Benn also accepts that there is a fine line between intensity and recklessness and knows, having watched the fight back, he occasionally veered towards the latter against Eubank Jnr.
“I actually thought I was genuinely going to knock him out. I was so close, and I just got greedy in there,” he said. “It’s the lack of discipline. I’m more disappointed in myself for the lack of discipline than anything else.”
His own discipline he could control, of course. However, the decision, which went the way of Eubank Jnr, was something completely out of Benn’s hands. “When they announced he’d won, he’s fallen to the floor, he’s shocked,” he recalled. “I thought I had won the fight. I felt like I was dictating the pace, I was landing the more powerful shots, the more damaging shots, the more eye-catching shots. You’ve got to give him rounds 11 and 12, but I felt in the moment I’d won the fight.
“But then again, his work rate… he had good work rate. They weren’t damaging shots. They were messy shots; he made it messy. He used his weight well but, listen, I wouldn’t say it was a robbery. It was too close to call.
“But my lack of discipline gave it away.”
Luckily for Benn, he will get the chance to perform with greater discipline when he reunites with Eubank Jnr on November 15, again at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. This time, with less emphasis on selling the fight and indeed proving people wrong, perhaps Benn will be able to forget the past and fight with a clearer, calmer mind.
