Tony Sims has revealed that Nigel Benn had expected Chris Eubank Snr to join his son ahead of April's fight against Conor Benn.
In one of the moments of the boxing year, father and son put a period of estrangement behind them and walked to the ring to face Benn, who was in the ring with his father Nigel, the great rival of Eubank Snr.
Sims was uncertain about whether Eubank Snr would show, but Nigel Benn, perhaps knowing his rival better than any other, was convinced that he would.
“The first bit I see of him was getting out of the car, the same as everybody else,” said Sims, of the moment Eubank Snr and Jnr pulled up at the venue. “But Nigel said to me earlier on in the night, ‘Chris will definitely be here'.
“I went, ‘But there ain't been no sign of him until now'. He weren’t there on the way in. So I said, ‘I find that hard to believe, Nigel'.
“Nigel went, ‘Watch, he’ll turn up'.
“And he was right. Nigel was right. [Eubank Snr] did turn up.”
And it was Eubank Jnr who had his hand raised after 12 frenetic and fierce rounds.
The sons will box again at the same venue, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, on November 14, and it will again be a huge event.
The first one was two years in the making after Benn twice tested positive for the banned substance clomifene ahead of their first scheduled meeting.
“[Eubank Snr being present] made the event spectacular then, him turning up. It was like he was the last piece of the jigsaw that needed for that event and that fight. And it was great that he turned up for his son as well.”
Father and son recently posed for pictures – looking typically dapper – on Eubank Jnr’s 36th birthday. Jnr said on social media that it was his first birthday for six years on which he’d seen his father.
