sport news We both walk and fight in shadow of our fathers! Benn and Eubank bound by ... trends now
On Saturday night, at the Palace Theatre in Southend on Sea, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank met at centre stage once more: face to face for the first night of their Trilogy Tour, exchanging digs, trading more tales of a rivalry reignited.
Along the coast in Hove, Frank Smith is enjoying a rare weekend off. Albeit under a form of house arrest.
‘I’m probably not allowed in the gym,’ the 30-year-old says. Not when Chris Eubank Jnr is training.
Chris Eubank Jr (left) and Conor Benn are now set to continue their family feud
No matter that they will soon be family. Their relationship remains... complicated. For six years, Smith has dated Eubank’s younger sister, Emily. ‘She’s actually the man of the relationship! That makes it a lot easier for me,’ says Eubank Jnr.
For six years, Smith, the Matchroom Boxing chief executive and Eddie Hearn’s right-hand man, has also guided the career of Conor Benn. ‘The business and family aspect of things don’t clash — not yet anyway,’ adds Eubank Jnr.
Recently, though, Smith negotiated Benn on to a collision course with his future brother-in-law. Those worlds meet next Saturday.
It is one of the many, tangled threads entwining these families dating back to 1990, when Eubank Jnr and Benn Snr began British boxing’s most ferocious, unforgettable feud. Nearly three decades after their 1993 rematch, Conor and Chris will write the next chapter. Smith’s plan for fight night?
‘Half-and-half-scarf in the front row, not smiling,’ he jokes.
The sons of the two famous rivals are squaring off 30 years since their fathers' last meeting
Together these warring tribes are bound by boxing, blood, thunder, tragedy and now love.
‘That’s why this fight is happening: because of the history, the bad blood,’ says Eubank. ‘I wanted to be a part of something that had never been done before and will never, ever be done again.’ The fathers’ fights cast a long shadow over British boxing and their son’s careers. Even after the opening bell in London, their significance will linger.
Eubank Snr, concerned by his son’s cut to the 157lb catchweight, tried to pull him out.
He reminded Nigel of the respective damage they did to Michael Watson and Gerald McClellan, even invoking the memory of his late son Sebastian, who died last year aged 29. ‘I have already lost one,’ Eubank said. ‘It can’t happen again.’
But Sebastian and Junior used to fantasise about this fight. ‘From the day that Conor turned pro, that was the thing,’ Eubank Jnr recalls. ‘“Wow, imagine if we fought… it’ll probably never happen but…”’
Eubank Jnr and Benn Snr began British boxing’s most ferocious, unforgettable feud
Until about a year ago, they trod parallel paths: Eubank Jnr, 33, has fought at middleweight and super-middleweight. Benn, 26, is approaching world title fights at welterweight.
For a while it seemed more likely that their fathers, both former world champions, would fight once more. As recently as 2016, Benn — then 52 — tried to lure 49-year-old Eubank
