Conor Benn was presented with two separate offers to compete against world championship-caliber opponents and his response was, essentially, “f*** that,” according to his former promoter Eddie Hearn, of Matchroom.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, one day after Zuffa Boxing front-man Dana White confirmed the upstart fight firm had re-signed the British slugger to a 2.5-year, 5-fight deal following it’s one-bout agreement for $15 million, Hearn said he offered then-Matchroom star fights against Lewis Crocker and Josh Kelly.
But there was just one problem.
“He knows his level.”
— Eddie Hearn on Conor Benn
“I wanted him to fight Lewis Crocker,” said Hearn.
The promoter said he took Benn for lunch and said to Benn, “Mate, you could fight Lewis Crocker.” Hearn said he told him it’d be “a great [and] very tough fight” but it had one clear advantage. “You win that fight, you are a world champion.”
But Benn wasn’t interested. “I don’t want to fight Lewis Crocker,” he apparently said back to Hearn.
His reason? He didn’t like Crocker’s former trainer Billy Nelson.
“What the f*** has that got to do with it?” Hearn said he told him. “Just fight him.”
Hearn continued: “Then, we talked about Josh Kelly, [he said], ‘Nah, f*** Josh Kelly’.
“I actually think that he is right [to do that] because he is only going to make a few million to fight those guys and Zuffa just s**** their load giving him 15 [million] to fight a bloke who couldn’t even stand up!”
Benn beat Regis Prograis in a lopsided unanimous decision win on his Zuffa debut April 11 as the co-feature to Tyson Fury’s dominant win over Arslanbek Makhmudov which Netflix aired from Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
He expressed Friday, during an appearance on ESPN First Take, that he wants to fight Ryan Garcia next for the popular Californian’s WBC welterweight world title.
