Shitshow you say? You bet, and not remotely salvaged by the late burst of sanity that shut down boxing’s freak show. Conor Benn vs Chris Eubank Jr was always a fight high on financial imperatives and low on merit, validated entirely by the connection to famous fathers.
Ordinarily Benn and Eubank Jr would be kept apart by convention and common sense. Benn, a welterweight, and Eubank Jr, a super middleweight who can boil down to middle, are separated by height, weight and experience. They had little business in a ring together before Benn tested positive for a banned substance. That the organisers would throw the lawyers at a problem that had a clear moral resolution demonstrates the degree to which the sport has lost a sense of place and proportion.
How many reasons do you need to can a show? A failed drug test should be enough. The express instruction of a boxing regulatory body, in this case the British Boxing Board of Control, that the fight should not go ahead would be another. Neither carried any weight with promotors seeking a legal solution to keep the coin rolling. We should not be surprised that a shabby compromise should be sought for a contest that was premised on shabby compromise.
Pitching a welterweight against a super middleweight would have made sanctioning bodies wince 100 years ago when the practice of fighters crossing divisions was common, and for much the same reason. Cash. The sport has civilised since then. Or it had. This kind of spectacle is the consequence of the growth of phony match-making in the YouTube universe, which has a ready-made audience for car crash TV.
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Benn vs Eubank Jr might pair authentic fighters but it offends as much as Logan Paul vs KSI for the risks it imposed on the participants. Over and above the inherent dangers at the heart of a sport predicated on targeted violence, the size deficit to Eubank Jr loaded the dice against Benn. On the scale of mutual jeopardy Eubank Jnr was at risk from the consequences of making an artificially low weight, which leaves boxers vulnerable to brain injury. Throw in a violation for a drug that may or may not have performance enhancing properties and you have a further layer of peril.
And all this pertaining to boxers whose own fathers had been involved in bouts with tragic outcomes. Michael Watson claims he has no regrets following the life-changing injuries he sustained in falling awkwardly against the ropes in his bout with Chris Eubank Snr. He would, however, like to turn back the clock. Gerald McLellan had surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain after defeat to Nigel Benn. The doctors could not save his sight and he walks only with the help of a cane.
At least in those examples the participants were equally matched. This was never about establishing who might be the better boxer. It was about tapping into the public appetite for dubious thrills, an ugly mutation of the sweet science into grotesque theatre.
Benn is a promising boxer, undefeated in 21 domestic fights. Eubank Jnr is a veteran of 32 bouts, many against world class opponents. The connection to a gripping rivalry that captivated British sport three decades ago is the obvious justification but there is no validation in nature, which sets them too far apart.
As consenting adults they are entitled to proceed if so blessed by a licensing authority. Rewards measured in millions were considered more than worth the risk. It was the fear of giving all that up that led to lawyers launching a 24-hour marathon of moral acrobatics to navigate a way past drug testing authorities, British boxing’s regulatory body and right thinking individuals everywhere. Since boxing has always existed on the edge of social acceptance and compliance, the episode will scarcely cause any to pause. Benn will soon be back having cleared his name, and Eubank Jr will clear his diary to accommodate him.
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