Famous boxing and mixed martial arts journalist Gareth A Davies has given his latest thoughts on the Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn situation.
Speaking on the TalkSport Fight Night podcast, he branded the catchweight of 157 pounds ‘too dangerous’ as well as comparing it to other famous British fighters who have been affected by significant weight differences in fights.
“It’s too dangerous a fight with the catchweight. It reminds me of two other fights [Canelo-Khan and Golovkin-Brook].
I remember being in Virgil Hunter’s Oakland gym and him taking me to one side and saying ‘I didn’t want the kid to take this, I mean it.’. He said ‘He’s going to have to box perfectly for every minute of every round to stay alive and win.’
Canelo was enormous when he fought Amir Khan, it just looked wrong. He came into the ring twenty pounds heavier.
And then Kell Brook and Golovkin, big weight differences, big big weight differences.
There are weight divisions for a reason. We do have to be careful for the safety of the fighters.
I’m so glad this fight didn’t go ahead between Benn and Eubank. I don’t think this fight will ever happen now.”
Khan started the fight extremely fast (as he always did) and was even up on one of the judges’ scorecards, but the sheer size advantage of Canleo meant he was able to walk Khan down and land a brutal punch in the sixth, knocking the Brit out cold.
There was concern about the catchweight even before the ‘Born Rivals’ fight was postponed, with Eubank Jr saying throughout he hadn’t weighed 157 pounds since he was 18.
His father, Chris Eubank Sr even branded it as ‘attempted murder’ trying to get his son down to that weight. Jr declared that the weight cut would limit his ability to 60%, with which he could still beat Benn, a famous windup tactic to drive promotion for the bout that was scheduled for 8th October at the O2 Arena.