Conor Benn’s team to open talks over massive Chris Eubank Jr grudge match this week with target fight date revealed
EDDIE HEARN is set to open talks this week for Conor Benn’s massive grudge match with Chris Eubank Jr.
The two fighting sons were set to meet in a 157lb catchweight clash in October, almost 30 years after their dads’ famous rematch.
But it was cancelled after Benn failed two drug tests, leaving him battling to clear his name ever since.
Following the scandal, Eubank, 33, instead fought Liam Smith, 35, in January, where he was dropped and stopped for the first time in his career.
But the middleweight avenged the loss in their rematch with a tenth-round stoppage, which Benn, 26, was ringside to watch.
Now his promoter Hearn is hoping to restart negotiations for the British blockbuster to take place in December.
But first Benn could return in a tune-up bout this month following talks with the British Boxing Board of Control to be re-licensed.
Hearn told iFL TV: “We’re having conversations, decent communications with the board about Conor boxing on September 30.
“They haven’t rejected and those conversations are ongoing. He has the option because he’s licensed in America and he’s not suspended anywhere.
“The board are happy for him to fight in Orlando, they’re not going to object to it or say that he can’t fight because they can’t, he’s not suspended.
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“He’s been cleared of his suspension so that’s an option as well and ideally we would like him to fight before he goes into that huge fight which will be in December.”
Following a video-call hearing in July with the National Anti-Doping Panel, a provisional suspension on Benn was lifted, freeing him to fight again.
So he could return on Hearn’s next bill in America – having not boxed since April 2022 – or jump right into a fight with Eubank.
Hearn said: “He will go into that fight straight off the bat.
“But he hasn’t boxed for over a year-and-a-half now so a ten or an eight [round fight], he won’t want an eight, it doesn’t even have to be a big fight of any magnitude.
“Just go out there and dust the cobwebs off before you have a career-defining fight and that’s something that we’ll have to decide this week.”