Joey’s Corner: Eubank Jr and Benn is a slice of British boxing history

When Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn take to the ring this Saturday, November 15, their match-up is obviously evocative of the spectacular rivalry their fathers shared. Two 1990s super-occasions that rocked the country. 

But it is a throwback in other ways. Betfred senior boxing journalist Joey Mills connects the dots between Eubank Jr vs Benn II and the days of boxing yore. Step into Joey’s Corner, complete with the latest Eubank Jr vs Benn II odds.

Boxing, more than perhaps any other sport, likes to look back. Each generation is defined by a stubborn resistance to what came before. Fans were aghast that Larry Holmes saw himself as superior to Rocky Marciano. Jaws dropped when comparisons were made between Mike Tyson and Sonny Liston. Muhammad Ali was, in the eyes of many, unfit to lace Joe Louis’ gloves.

All nonsense, of course. But the gloved game clings to its golden oldies longer than most athletic pursuits. Football runs it close now, with teenagers polluting TikTok with the phrase ‘Against Modern Football’ just because their team lost to a VAR-awarded penalty. But try telling a football fan born after 1980 that Diego Maradona was better than Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi (he was) and you will get two ears full of recency bias.

With all that said, I wish to hark back to boxing’s past as we look forward to Saturday’s scintillation. But not to denigrate this particular Eubank’s second meeting with a Benn. Instead to enhance it. Because this fight is a throwback in a good way. Evocative, not inferior.

The stadium setting is where we will start. Because before these two fiery fist-flingers filled Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in April, a non-heavyweight fight hadn't headlined a venue of that size for 11 years. 

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Carl Froch and George Groves’ IBF and WBA super middleweight title rematch in 2014 was the last large-scale fight in this country not involving a heavyweight headliner. Specifically, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua were the only Brits who summoned such swathes of fans in the post-Froch/Groves years. Non-heavyweight super-sellers Josh Warrington at Elland Road and Tony Bellew at Goodison Park brought us big stadium occasions. But the max attendance was 25,000. Eubank and Benn, for the second time, are preparing to sell over 67,000 seats.

This fight is also a throwback because Eubank represents a dying breed; the peacock. Make no mistake, I mean that as no insult. Boxing has been blessed with these majestic madmen over its long history. 

Think Prince Naseem Hamed flipping over the ropes before evading opponents with no-fixed-abode head movement and blistering, violent volleys. Roy Jones Jr offering his chin to hapless challengers, rescinding the offer as they threw for it and knocking them out with punches as vicious as his ‘Captain Hook’ nickname. Emanuel Augustus bringing the 'drunken master' from Jackie Chan to the squared circle, befuddling even Floyd Mayweather with his unconventional movement.

Think, of course, of Eubank’s father. Chris Sr, ‘Simply The Best’ to you, who was and still remains a heroic peacock. It is a particularly brave thing to be a peacock in this country. We like our sporting heroes humble. Almost apologetic. Frank Bruno was beloved in a country where Lennox Lewis was only ever respected. 

Greg Rusedski won Sports Personality of the Year in 1997 for losing the US Open final. Hamed won five fights that year, including adding Tom Johnson’s IBF featherweight title to his own WBO strap and knocking out Kevin Kelley at Madison Square Garden in one of the greatest fights of the era. Picking a Brit who lost on American soil over one who won is as achingly British as it gets.

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Which is why Eubank Jr has never received the warmth he deserves in his home land. Repeatedly told he isn’t as good as his Dad by people who hated the elder Eubank at the time. He is not the only one to endure unwarranted whining for his perceived attitude. Ben Whittaker won an Olympic silver for his country, but that has still not bought him any grace from the British public. Those middle-aged men who now bemoan the lack of precocious legends like Hamed and Senior bemoan the fact that Whittaker and Junior are evoking them right in front of their faces.

The other element of British boxing’s past that Eubank Jr vs Benn II conjures is pageantry. Entrances across boxing have taken on a slightly more WWE air in recent times, but few have compared to Prince Nas flying to the ring on magic carpets or belittling dancing doppelgangers of himself before rolling to the ring in a Cadillac. 

But Eubank and Benn partied like it was 1999 in their springtime meeting. ‘The Destroyer’ sauntered out to a gospel choir singing ‘Ready Or Not’ by Fugees. Eubank had his own orchestra, his father by his side with each generation clad in an opulent, fur-finished coat. Saudi money has changed what’s possible in boxing, but nobody has spent as much of it on their entrances as these boys.

The history is rich here and it is about much more than two famous sons. This is no pale imitation, not any more. This is the weaving of decades of British boxing history. There is blood, both genetic and biological. But there is pomp, like the Prince. There will be fans hanging from the rafters, evoking fights as far-flung as Lewis vs Bruno and as newly-poignant Ricky Hatton vs Juan Lazcano. The middleweight setting brings to mind warriors from Alan Minter to Darren Barker.

Benn can be as brutish as Froch. Eubank as smirkingly-arrogant as his old foe Groves. Eubank vs Benn II is not a sequel as much as it is a new chapter of an age-old story. Boxing, particularly in this country, is a funny old game.

Image Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom

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