HAMBURG – Eddie Hearn is in the midst of negotiating for Conor Benn’s return to a British ring, and it seems likely the fighter in the opposite corner is one of two – Mario Barrios or Chris Eubank Jnr.
Negotiations for Eubank-Benn were always going to be fraught, and that is proving to be the case, although Hearn met with Eubank’s promoter Ben Shalom on Tuesday night.
Barrios is the WBC welterweight champion. Eubank Snr has been fighting at middleweight.
But, on Monday, Benn was at the WBC Convention where his head was turned by the green and gold of the title his father Nigel used to wear at super middleweight, having defeated Mauro Galvano in Italy in 1992. Hearn admitted that the lure of the WBC belt has piqued Benn’s interest.
“Big time,” said the promoter. “It’s a really difficult situation, because the Mario Barrios fight is good money, but the money for Eubank is through the roof. Eubank, you can imagine what the negotiations are like, now he [Benn’s] come here [to Germany], he saw his dad’s WBC belt, and he can beat Barrios.
“So he could become world welterweight champion. Can you imagine this kid from his debut – how it was at the start of his career, winning the world welterweight title. But he’d be leaving millions on the table.”
Does Hearn think they could go back to it if they went in different directions now?
A fight with Barrios could happen as early as February, but a Eubank fight could take longer, and could take Benn to March-April, meaning it would have been more than a year since he fought Pete Dobson in Las Vegas.
Hearn said that a proposed Benn-Eubank fight would “not necessarily” be a Riyadh Season promotion.
Eubank and Benn almost fought in October 2022, but Benn tested positive for the banned substance clomifene, relinquished his license with the British Boxing Board of Control, boxed twice in America, and is likely to return to fight in the UK after UK Anti-Doping said that they would not contest him boxing in England. Benn’s team has also indicated that their fighter could also look to resolve his differences with Gervonta Davis in a fight later in 2025.
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