Conor Benn has, by all accounts, prepared incredibly for his fight with Chris Eubank Jr. this weekend.
Speaking at the final press conference, Nigel Benn talked up his son’s preparations by claiming he had made new IBF Super-Middleweight World Champion end a sparring session early.
“He started sparring with a guy called William Scull, an IBF Champion, who’s fighting a week after. I shouldn’t say it but, you know what, for the last two years it’s been negative, I’m gonna tell you about my son. First four four rounds, him and Conor were even stevens.
“About round five he was like ‘no, no, no’ because Conor only has 40 seconds rest. What he was doing in between rounds, he was sitting on the ropes, cause he was tired. Then it came to round five, six, seven, he started feeling the pace. This is William Scull, IBF Champion. Round eight came, and [me and Tony] looked at each other and we thought, he just quit. He stopped. Couldn’t take no more after eight rounds. We were meant to be doing ten rounds.”
Scull’s promoter has now responded with his own version of events, stating that they had agreed to do eight rounds only and that his charge ending the session was because of this, not because he quit.
“The father of Conor Benn said they got good sparring against Scull. Scull couldn’t [do more than] eight round. You know why? Because we said eight rounds. We said we make one minute stop, because it was our first sparring. He was already doing some sparring.
“So we said eight rounds, we made eight rounds. I really have to laugh. Show it in the ring that your son had a good one … Even if it [was how he said], nobody speaks about this. Sportsmanship.”
As Benn faces Eubank Jr this weekend, Scull is set to enter fight week for the biggest fight of his life against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez for the undisputed crown at 168 pounds.
