Tony Bellew has been speaking about the upcoming rematch between Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr.
It was only back in April that these two first met in the ring after years of animosity, plenty of heated verbal exchanges, egg-slaps, a failed drug test on Benn’s part and then a missing of the weight limit by Eubank the day before the fight.
All of that came to bear in the contest, which was aggressive and high octane from the off with both men throwing big shots, but Eubank came out on top with a unanimous decision on the cards.
They will now do it all again in London on September 20. Speaking to talkSPORT Boxing, former WBC cruiserweight champion Bellew outlined why he thinks the rematch has to happen now.
“They can’t avoid it and go separate ways. If Conor goes back to 147 he ain’t gonna be fully ready to go back to 160 straight away, he can’t do it. And for Chris Eubank Jr he cannot go anywhere near anything else but 160, cause the minute Chris Eubank Jr goes to 168 he ain’t coming anywhere near 160, so it’s got a very short lifespan this rematch.”
He then explained why he will be siding with Benn.
“It’s got to be done the sooner the better. If I’m being honest, the sooner it happens, in my opinion, it favours Conor Benn, cause he’s the younger fighter, he’s taken much less damage. He’s had much less a career, much less experience. For someone like Chris Eubank Jr it’s going to take a while to recover, a while to turn around, cause that was a hard fight for him, he was shook a number of times, he felt the shots … So was Conor … But ultimately [it’s] the younger you are in this game, and Conor is a young man.”
Similar arguments were made the first time around, but it was Eubank Jr’s natural size advantages that prevailed after 12 rounds. Whether Benn can do something different in the rematch, only time will tell.
