Former WBC cruiserweight titlist Tony Bellew has spoken of his admiration for both Chris Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn.
The two fighters will meet for a second time on Saturday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. The repeat matchup comes nearly seven months on from their first bout, which Eubank won via a tight decision following a war.
The fathers of both boxers were world champions and made millions, and, of course, Chris Eubank Snr and Nigel Benn shared two famous battles.
Bellew, an interested spectator on Saturday, said of the sons: “I admire both of them. To come from where they’ve come from, it’s remarkable to get where they’ve got. You have to understand, these kids were born in silk pajamas.
“I come from the streets, [Carl] Froch came from fuck-all and George [Groves] was with me on England squads fighting for nothing, going around the world fighting in places you couldn’t imagine. It builds character. But these kids had their whole lives in front of them and were told, ‘You don’t need to do this, you don’t need to do that,’ and to get to the levels they’ve got to, I commend them both. Absolute animals, the pair of them. I have so much admiration for them because I couldn’t do what I did if I hadn’t come from where I came from. I’m a product of my environment. Those two are the complete opposite, and I have to admire that.”
Bellew is now 42 and an analyst for DAZN after a career that saw fights with the likes of Oleksandr Usyk, David Haye, Nathan Cleverly and Ilunga Makabu. In his expert opinion, he believes that a trilogy bout is inevitable should Benn even the score against his rival.
“If [Benn] wins and it’s 1-1, the money’s astronomical and the people around him, they will straight away say, ‘You’re going into that third fight, because it will pay 10 times more than that world title fight.’ And that’s just common sense. It’s not rocket science.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
