Tony Bellew has made a confident prediction for Conor Benn’s fight with Chris Eubank Jr this weekend.
This intriguing match-up has proven a hard one to predict. On paper, Eubank, who has fought as high as super-middleweight and will be used to the middleweight limit of this bout, has also been more active and fought more experienced men across his career.
The younger, fresher Benn was on a good run – a pair of knockouts over Chris van Heerden and Chris Algieri – before he tested positive for a banned substance ahead of his first scheduled fight with Eubank in October 2022. Since then, has had two low-key points wins at 154lbs, and will be moving up to 160 for the first time this coming weekend.
How that will affect his power and stamina is the big question, with some in the sport feeling Eubank is simply too big.
Speaking at the open workout this week, Bellew – who has backed Benn to get the job done inside six rounds in ‘brutal and vicious’ fashion – posed a question about the 28-year-old’s fitness across a high-level 12-round contest.
“The big thing is how intense and for how long can Conor do it for?”
Benn responded confidently.
“I can do it for 12 rounds.”
Bellew then made another bold prediction.
“You won’t lose a single round then. If you can throw a 100 punches a round with the intensity and ferocity, you will not lose a round.”
Whether or not Benn can actually follow through on this only time will tell, but an opposing view is that for him to win, he needs to get it done early before the weight difference begins to come into play and Eubank, known in the past for durability, comes on strong in the later rounds.
As for Bellew, his definitive verdict is:
“I’m saying Conor Benn in the first five rounds. I think he’ll catch him and nail him and jump all over him.”
