The much-mooted fight between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn has got many people split when it comes to a prediction, and that includes Ricky Hatton.
It is one of the most talked about fights in boxing right now, and not necessarily for all the right reasons. First scheduled for October 2022, it was pulled in the final days when news broke that Benn had served up adverse analytical findings in a VADA drug test. He has since been fighting to prove his innocence.
He has not yet managed to do so in the eyes of the British Boxing Board of Control, but despite that had a 10-round ring return in America against an unheralded Mexican, Rodolfo Orozco. It recently emerged Orozco himself failed a drug test around the time of the fight.
Since Eubank Jr knocked out Liam Smith in a reverse of the result in the British pair’s first fight, talks of him coming together against Benn early next year have intensified.
Speaking to BBTV Boxing, former world champion Hatton has now revised his prediction should they meet having previously sided with Benn.
“I’m big friends with Nigel and very close to Conor but I think Conor moving up in weight makes me a little bit worried. It’s a close one, I wouldn’t like to say, but Conor is dedicated in his training, so strong and powerful and explosive. He’s fresh, he’s strong. But I couldn’t put my last pound on it, it’s going to be a close fight.
Eubank’s performance against Smith in their rematch and the Benn fight being set at the middleweight limit of 160lbs has many in the sport revisiting their initial predictions.
Whilst the pair get ready for the as yet unannounced fight, Hatton is currently in training for the ITV reality show Dancing on Ice.