Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn won’t be getting into a cage any time soon, despite promoters angling for their face-off to have extra protection.
The bitter rivals squared off in an intense press conference on Tuesday evening in front of a raucous Manchester crowd. The boxing stars traded barbs that even included promoter Eddie Hearn taking the brunt of some intense burns, but things got physical in the final face-off.
Eubank Jr smacked Benn across the face with an egg in his hand, leading to the pair being dragged apart by security. And while Boxxer boss Ben Shalom wanted the pair to be put in a cage for their London face-off, Hearn has shut down the idea.
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Eddie Hearn refuses to put Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn in a cage for second face-off
In the aftermath of the egg incident in Manchester, there have been many security concerns raised by the British Boxing Board of Control and event organizers. Chris Eubank Jr will be called before the board, and they have already been in contact with promoters about their next steps.
A second press conference is scheduled for tomorrow in London, and it has already been confirmed that the pair will square off on the pitch at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and not on stage. Boxxer even tweeted that the pair could be put in a cage, a la KSI and Tommy Fury in Misfits Boxing.
However, in an exclusive chat with Bloody Elbow, Hearn confirmed that idea was not happening, saying: “Ben Shalom said to me last night ‘let’s do a cage or some glass’ and I was like ‘mate, no, we’re not doing that’.
“We don’t go down that road. This is a real fight and this is a big fight for boxing, but we just keep security between them and make sure they can’t get near each other. That’s more than enough.”
Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn cancelled face-to-face after egg incident
Hearn was speaking at the final press conference in Belfast ahead of Paddy Donovan and Lewis Crocker’s showdown at the SSE Arena. He arrived on a private jet after a last-minute cancellation of Eubank and Benn’s face-to-face sitdown that was scheduled for the morning.
He insists that they will eventually do the video, but not during this current run of promotion. “There will be one in time,” he explained. “But I think it would be a big mistake to put those guys this far away at this point in time.
“The reality is some people think it’s no big deal, some people are disgusted by it, whatever. He’s attacked Conor, he’s whacked him with something and you can’t expect Conor to be like ‘oh well, it is what it is’.
“Right now, he wants to get hold of him and do a job on him now and we can’t afford to have that happen. Especially before we go on sale! So to sit at a table and antagonize them would not be the right thing to do,
“We’ve spoke to the board and I know the board are calling Eubank in but away from that they’ve also said to us ‘look, what are you doing about Thursday?’ What we’ve said is that we’ll not do a face-to-face at the presser, we’ll do it on the pitch.
“We’ll have security between them and we’ll make sure that there is no chance of them getting anywhere near each other.”