“I’ve been fucked so many times. I don’t even get upset about it. Boxing is one of the worst businesses in the world.” Eddie Hearn speaking to GQ in 2022.
Perhaps it says more about the writer than the protagonist that news of Conor Benn signing with Zuffa Boxing drew a wry smile. The schadenfreude of it all. Eddie Hearn, the sport’s most lusty chapman, with the film star crop and the double breasted roll neck and white pimp soles, betrayed by the fighter he stood by in his darkest moments.
And to Hearn’s newest nemesis. Dana White. A challenge even to boxing’s loquacious Lex Luthor – and if early interviews are a guide – the disbelief appeared to be winning.
What the ramifications of Benn signing with the promotional interloper are remains to be seen. Detail discussed suggest a solitary fight and there is a large fee attached. A diversion from the planned theme the upstart company report to want – long term contracts, with fixed terms in which activity is king. Benn is neither a World-Champion nor is he world class in ability. But he has that most valuable of assets. Brand recognition.
When he first appeared in a ring, a few months before his own debut, thin necked, narrow shoulders, pinstripe trousers gathered around him like a freshly washed duvet trapped on a clothes prop, the notion of a career as a prizefighter seemed a flimsy dream. Eddie Hearn indulged the idea in that way of his; whole heartedly and with the twinkle in his eye. His boyish double-glazed grin, latterly stiffened into a soulless stare, embracing the romance of it all. As fights came and went, the son of Nigel unable to find the punches or power to go with the surname or the lamentable rhetoric, the dream seemed to grow flimsier.
By the time Benn struggled with Cedrick Peynaud at York Hall in December 2017, dropped in the first and clueless for much of what followed, he had been boxing for a year and half. Benn didn’t possess the attributes of a fighter or look likely to summon them. Just a build and cash out type project; ‘everyone makes a few bob, has a few laughs, the kid gets to play make-believe‘ etc. Two years later – only 4 wins added, including a rematch win over Peynaud – there was little change to that profile.
A year lapsed without a fight. He re-emerged with an improved performance over 10 rounds with the modest but wily Sebastian Formella. I wrote at the time; “his jab was a whiplash; accurate, piercing and hurtful. A counter left-hook, thrown tightly, caught the durable Formella repeatedly…..bloodied his nose and asked more questions of the German’s appetite for pain than Shawn Porter had demanded across 12 Championship rounds”.
The pandemic brought the world to a halt shortly afterward. 4 months later Benn knocked out the reliable Samuel Vargas in a round – “the transformation during the past year of lockdown has been sensational” was the summary I submitted at the time. By December 2021 he did the same to Chris Algieri in the 4th and destroyed Chris van Heerdan in two in April 2022.
A few months later Benn failed two tests for performance enhancing drugs. He didn’t box for a year, lost the original date with Chris Eubank Jr and didn’t fight in the UK for three years. Tales of eggs, contamination and other varied conspiracy theories about evidence to prove his innocence swirled, a bit like the pinstripe trousers had all those years ago. There was never a big reveal. Time was served.
Steadfast beside him. Eddie Hearn.
Vouching for Conor Benn when he didn’t need to. Hearn had Joshua – the biggest cash machine in British boxing. He lent him goodwill. Absorbed criticism. Spoke when there was silence. Hearn ignored the available science. Trusted the handshake and the promises. Convinced himself. Perhaps he did, perhaps he didn’t. Maybe his soul was long since sold. Regardless, for better or worse Hearn wed himself to the Conor Benn story.
Professional and financial vindication for the loyalty came when Conor Benn won the rematch against a drawn and fragile Eubank Jr. The one time novelty act was now a legitimate attraction. The WBC in its ubiquitous fawning added a Number 1 rating at welterweight – despite Benn not boxing at the weight since the van Heerdan fight four years previously.
Every ounce of know-how, leverage and enthusiasm poured into Benn’s career.
And then Benn left. By text.
It will be interesting to see what Hearn does with the lessons he will be learning, or re-learning today.
BOXINGWRITER.CO.UK 
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