Fierce rivals go the distance in middleweight bout as their famous fathers watch on at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
Chris Eubank Jr dealt fellow Briton Conor Benn a first career defeat after going the distance to win their middleweight grudge match on a unanimous points decision.
All three judges scored the fight 116-112 after a pulsating 12-round slugfest, with both fighters coming out hard from the start and going toe-to-toe in front of 65,000 spectators at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The fight between the sons of former world champions and archrivals Chris Eubank Sr and Nigel Benn, who met twice in the 1990s, was called off in 2022 when Benn tested positive for trace amounts of fertility drug clomifene.
“I knew I was capable of that, and I just needed someone to bring that out of me. I did not expect him to be the guy to do that,” Eubank told DAZN.
“The fact our fathers did it before brings out the soul in you.
“I did not know he [Benn] had what he had in him. I thought I’d break him early. I didn’t train for a fight like that.”
Both fathers were present, 32 years on from their last clash, and embraced in the ring before the opening bell.
The fight itself rolled back the years from the scraps that their fathers produced with sheer aggression and energy dominating.
“It was close,” Benn said after. “I need to watch it back. I thought I won. Maybe I stayed on the ropes for too long. I enjoyed it, and it was a massive homecoming.
“We always knew Chris was a good fighter, and has good fighting talk.”
Benn had made a step up in weight to face someone who had been a fierce rival outside the ring.
“I believe I can go back down a weight and win a title,” Benn said on reflection.
A rematch between the pair is in the contract, and promoter Eddie Hearn was clear that it needs to happen, in his opinion.
“I couldn’t split them. I thought Benn was winning the fight and then lost the last two rounds,” Hearn told DAZN.
“It is what it is, but I didn’t see Eubank winning that by four rounds.
“Benn became the people’s champion. He rose up to fight a middleweight, and he took the kitchen sink. He never stopped trying to win the fight.
“It was one of the most dramatic fights I’ve seen.
“Those two warriors should respect each other after that.”