sport news Conor Benn's trainer admits they WILL consider cancelling Chris Eubank Jr clash ... trends now
'It seems like the time has flown so quickly from them days to now,' says Tony Sims, who casts his mind all the way back to the early 1990s.
It was then that Sims, in his own fighting days at the time, enjoyed sparring sessions with good friend Nigel Benn in the lead-up to his super-middleweight world-title defences against Dan Sherry and Thulani 'Sugar Boy' Malinga.
Those contests were sandwiched by Benn's two legendary encounters with arch-nemesis Chris Eubank; the first of which saw him stopped on his feet after nine rounds, before the rematch ended in a controversial draw.
Tony Sims (R) will be in Conor Benn's corner when he takes on Chris Eubank Jr next weekend
Three decades ago Sims was providing sparring for Conor's father, super-middleweight world champion Nigel Benn, in between his two encounters with Chris Eubank Sr
Sims was ringside at a packed Old Trafford for the second instalment of Benn's celebrated rivalry with Eubank, which remains the greatest British boxing has ever seen. Now, three decades on, he is tasked with leading his son into battle against Eubank Jr.
'There are people that weren’t even born when those fights were happening, and I was actually amongst it and sparring Nigel in the gym,' Sims, one of the most respected trainers in the country, tells Sportsmail.
'So to see his boy that I’ve trained for the last six or seven years now fighting Eubank, I suppose when you look at it that way it is a surreal thing.
'But to me, I haven’t really sat down and thought about it like that. That’s the first time I've thought about it like that. To me it’s just an everyday job in the gym that I’ve done for the last 26 years.'
Next Saturday at London's O2 Arena, Sims will be in Benn Jr's corner for the astonishing Eubank trilogy not many saw coming this quickly.
His young welterweight charge, who had been building slowly and steadily towards a world-title shot at 147lbs, is leaping up almost two weight divisions to take on Eubank, a 160-pounder by nature.
Eubank Jr and Benn are now set to continue their family feud in a true fantasy encounter
The sons of the two famous rivals are squaring off 29 years since their fathers' last meeting
Benn was enjoying a slow and steady ascent towards world level at welterweight beforehand
The latter must drop down to a catchweight of 157lbs for this lucrative fantasy match-up to go ahead next weekend. Yet still, many forebode a painful evening for Benn in with a naturally heavier opponent who campaigned up at 168lbs not so long ago.
'I’d have preferred him to stay in his own division,' Sims admits, 'because that’s where he was and that’s what he’s aiming for. But this was a curveball out of nowhere really, and it’s a hard fight to turn down – a very hard fight to turn down.
'It’s a fight that both dads have gone down in history with. I spoke to Nigel on the phone about it straight away. Nigel was like, ‘do the fight, you’ve got to do the fight’. So as long as Nigel was happy that his son was going in there [it was fine], and I do believe that Conor is a special talent. I believe that whoever he fights, he has that sort of punching power that he can cause anyone trouble.'
Benn Sr's seal of approval was an essential ingredient in this fight getting off the ground. If he had said otherwise, Sims insists it would not be going ahead.
'Me and Nigel are good friends and have been good friends for a long time,' he says about the British boxing icon, who now resides in Australia. 'So I would always ask for his opinion on what he thought on any opponent.
'He obviously likes to know where he’s living on the other side of the world, he likes to know what his son’s doing and what’s being made for him.
Sims admits he would have preferred his young charge to stay at 147lbs in normal conditions
But after receiving the green light from Nigel to make it, it was too hard to turn the fight down
'If Nigel turned round to me and said "listen, under no circumstances do you do this fight," it would have been a big factor in the fight not being made.
'But he had no hesitation in saying take this fight, he said "this fight is right for my son."'
While Nigel was all for his son adding a third chapter to the family's rivalry with the Eubanks, his old foe took a completely different stance.
In a sensational interview with Sportsmail earlier this month, Chris Sr opened up on his concerns with Jr cutting drastically down to a weight he has not made since his teenage years.
The former super-middleweight champion, expressing grave fears over his son's safety, even threatened to jump the legal hoops required to scupper the bout entirely, a promise which proved empty given he is not contractually involved.
'I respect Chris [Sr], he’s been a great fighter and that, but a lot of things that he says people don’t really take a lot of notice of,' Sims says.
Eubank Sr, meanwhile, threatened to pull the plug on it due to fears over his son's weight cut
'He comes out with some strange comments, so I don’t think anyone took him that
