Chris Eubank Jr has FAILED to make weight for his fight with Conor Benn – and will be fined £375,000.
Eubank Jr weighed 160.2lb on his first attempt and 160.05lb on his second and final attempt, meaning he will be handed the hefty penalty – but the fight WLL still go ahead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tomorrow night. Benn had earlier weighed in well under the 160lb middleweight limit at 156.4lb as he prepares to make his debut at the higher weight class. Both men must now weigh no more than 170lb at 8am tomorrow morning or else they will face financial penalties up to £1million.
The blockbuster clash was originally been scheduled to take place back in October 2022. However the fight was cancelled just a few days before the pair were due to touch gloves after Benn failed a drugs test. The Brit has since had his suspension lifted and is now cleared to compete in the UK.
Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn will face off on Saturday, April 26, at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Fans can order the fight on DAZN PPV for £19.95, which also comes with a DAZN seven-day free trial.
Benn, who will receive the £375,000 on top of his £7.5million purse, is moving up two weight classes from welterweight to fight his long-time rival. Eubank Jr is a natural middleweight, and has previously competed at super-middleweight (168lb) in his career. Eubank Jr will therefore enjoy a considerable advantage on the night and admitted he could choose not to adhere to the rehydration clause tomorrow.
In an interview with the Guardian, the 35-year-old said: “I can change my mind at any time but it will cost me a substantial amount of money. I don’t want to lose $1m so I’m pretty sure I’m going to stick to it.” He added: “They are paying me a separate fee to restrict my weight gain and rehydration. I was never going to do it for free.” Over the last few months, Benn has claimed that Eubank Jr’s team first brought forward the idea of a rehydration clause – a claim in which the latter dismisses: “Why would I think: ‘Let me make this harder on myself and restrict my weight gain after a weigh-in for no reason?’”
He continued: “Another thing happened between me and Conor. We hadn’t been face to face for a long time. He chose to grow some balls and push me on the day that I was cutting weight for my previous fight [last October in Saudi Arabia]. He knew I was very weak and, because I’m boxing the next day, I’m not about to get in a fight with him. That shows you the character of Benn and Hearn, who was right next to him.”
Ever since the event was announced, Eubank Jr’s father has publicly slammed the fight going ahead and has a real issues with Benn coming up two weight classes for the middleweight dust-up. The boxing icon believes ‘The Destroyer’ is putting himself at risk by fighting above his preferred weight and is doing everything he can to persuade his son not to compete in the clash, insisting he’s having to ‘boil himself down’ in order to make the 160lb limit.
That said, Eubank Jr himself has rejected concerns about the weight cut. “I’ve been doing this for so many years and know my body. It can be horrific but it’s part of what fighters sign up for,” he said. “If we’re going to make all this money, you have to make sacrifices. One of those sacrifices is starving yourself, dehydrating yourself, pulling yourself down to an extremely uncomfortable weight.”
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
