What was a memorable back-and-forth battle back in late April between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn, which was won by Eubank, was a one-sided drubbing this past weekend in favor of Benn in their rematch. And in many ways this was over before it started.
Eubank admitted it himself.
"I've been through hell and back to make it here today,'' he said at the post-fight presser. The 'hell' he's talking about was the process that he put himself through to make the 160-pound limit for this rematch. Before the weigh-in he posted this on Twitter/X:
https://x.com/ChrisEubankJr/status/1989325671537987946
Yeah, that looks pretty hellish. There is a belief that boxers go through two fights: the first to make weight, the other the actual fight. And sometimes the first battle can lose you the war. Eubank and his slow, sluggish movements through this contest were in stark contrast to the quick and decisive ones from his rival. Eubank admitted that he realized in the first round that he was stuck in mud.
DAZN
In the 12th round he was knocked into the dirt twice. It was a rousing ending for Benn as he emphatically closed out Britain's most famous boxing family feud. 118-108, 116-110 and 117-109 were the scores in what looked like the final chapter of this heated and colorful rivalry.
Benn, who for much of his career was a welterweight before campaigning for a bit at 154 before getting a shot at Eubank earlier this year, had no such issues. Chances are he probably didn't really have to cut all that much weight. Like most fighters he has a walk-around weight, but in terms of really drying out and putting himself through that excruciating process that depletes your system, Benn was most likely spared this excruciating process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ajdg5E97Yc&t=89s
Now, it has to be pointed out that Eubank has been a middleweight more or less, since 2019, after beginning his career at 168. So making 160 is not foreign to him. Now, admittedly I'm just speculating here but at age 36 there is a chance that this process may have gotten a bit more difficult with age, but there is a chance his body may not have reacted/recovered the way it had in previous years -- or how it did back in April.
DAZN
But the reality is that Eubank isn't the only fighter putting himself in harms way. With weigh-ins now taking place a full day-and-a-half (do the math, if main event boxers don't fight till around 8 or 9 pm, and boxers actually step on the scales on the morning before the fight, that's closer to two days before the fight than one) many boxers play this risky game of squeezing their body into the smallest possible weight class with the hopes of gaining a physical advantage as they blow up a full two or three weight classes above what they come in at.
(This particular contest had a re-hydration limit where neither fighter could add more than 10 pounds on Saturday morning.)
The term 'weight bully' is thrown around a lot at certain boxers who really know how to game the system. But truthfully that's a bit of selective outrage. Most of today's boxers are probably fighting in a weight class that they wouldn't be if you had the old weigh-in times.
Matchroom Boxing
You wonder, if boxers are putting themselves through all this, is it really safer to have weigh-ins the day before? Hear me out, you want boxers to go through a safer process before hitting the scales and -- this is also key -- perform in the weight classes that they belong, you may want to go back to morning-of weigh-ins. Yeah, you could say that you're not giving these guys time to recover.
But at the same time, is it really any safer when you've put in a system where fighters back themselves like potatoes and then resort to IV's (yeah, yeah, I know it's illegal but you're naive to think it's not used) to replenish their systems.
Now, I realize that is a pipe dream. The genie is out of the bottle and there's no putting it back in. And this process has long been used as a last piece of the promotion to hype up these events. To a point, where 'ceremonial' weigh-ins are staged hours after the boxers have made weight.
Ring Magazine
It's been a long time since this was truly about fighter safety.
But credit to Benn. He was clearly the superior fighter in the rematch. He exhibited more poise and technical precision than in the first meeting against Eubank. Both understood what they were getting into and both agreed to the terms of the deal. There are no excuses or alibi in this racket. Just results that are everlasting.
He did his job. Eubank was just unable to do his.
