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Eddie Hearn insists he doesn’t want to drag Conor Benn despite their highly publicized split, but he doesn’t think his ex-fighter can win a world title.
Benn entered the biggest fight of his pro boxing career on Sept. 12. He challenged Ryan Garcia for the WBC welterweight title inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Disaster struck early for the challenger, who was dropped by a right hand in the second stanza. While “The Destroyer” managed to beat the 10-count, the fight was stopped after Garcia swarmed in with a barrage of punches.
While Benn received his biggest fight under the Zuffa Boxing banner after abruptly ending his 10-year relationship with Hearn’s Matchroom, many are skeptical that he’ll ever get such a marquee match again following his performance.
In an interview with iFL TV, Hearn said he doesn’t think the best version of Benn showed up on fight night (via MMAFighting).
“My last few predictions were that I thought Ryan Garcia would win inside three rounds,” Hearn said. “Remember, I’ve been around Conor Benn his whole career. I know him pretty well and I just felt that he looked lost. I don’t know. Didn’t really look like himself. Maybe it was just weight. The thing is that Conor’s the kind of guy that will be holding weight for a long time, does that make sense? I don’t think Conor Benn, because of how light he came in, I don’t think he crashed the weight 24 hours before.”
Even so, Hearn doesn’t believe Benn will ever hold a world title.
“Listen, obviously I’m extremely conflicted,” Hearn admitted. “My job is to hype up a fighter and position him into big fights, and I’m not going to sit here now and say, ‘He was never any good. And I never really believed in him,’ because I do think Conor Benn is a good fighter and I think that he has also improved so much. … He deserves a lot of credit for how hard he’s worked to get in that position. Now is he world class? I think what we’ve found it is no he’s not, but it doesn’t mean he’s not a good fighter. It doesn’t mean he’s southern area title-level. I just don’t think he’s good enough to win a world title or box that level, particularly at a weight class that’s actually not suited to him.”
Benn issued a statement following the disappointing result, and he said he’s taking time off to be with his kids for now. Time will tell what’s next for Benn inside the ring, but Hearn believes his former fighter will be “done in the next year or so.”
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This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM