M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool:
When your father is a fan favorite star things can sometimes go sideways. In those cases like Rocky Balboa told Junior, “you sometimes look for something to blame, like a shadow”. But you can’t argue when there is one there. Everyone loves Nigel Benn, the former two-weight champion. Now his son, Conor Benn is setting himself up quite well. But; how good is Benn.
In his next step; facing Chris Algeri who’s fought everyone, he’d be dealing with a third veteran in a row. One that was only stopped once, coming into their fight. And that was against either 1 or 1A of the division, Errol Spence. But a straight left and overhand right along the ropes at the 2:58 mark of round 4 added “The Destroyer” to that exclusive list.
The 25-year old Benn in his fifth-title defense of the WBA Continental Title fought it like a surgeon. And afterwards he didn’t mince words:
“They’re not tests. Every time I say they’re not sounds like arrogance, but it’s just confidence speaking. When I say I’m top five, I’m top five for a reason. No-one’s done that to Algeri, no-one’s beaten Granados as easily as I did, no-one knocked out Vargas in one round. What more do I have to do”?
How Good Is Benn
While fighting either Spence, Bud Crawford, or even Yordenis Ugas (whom he mentioned by name) is on his wish list, He, and his team are willing to take it one-step at a time and not go head first into something. He mentioned the winner of Kell Brook and Amir Khan. And while that may add another “vet” on his resume, it may not be a test that’s worthy of his time. Sure, promoter wise with all under Eddie Hearn in theory it wouldn’t be that hard to make.
However, at now 20-0 with 13-knockouts, there’s better names. Neither Jaron Ennis or Vergil Ortiz Jr have fights lined up. And dealing with Al Haymon and Oscar dela Hoya is no picnic. the fact remains those two have skill sets that can truly test Benn. Hearn is looking at Adrian Broner. And while Broner isn’t what he once was, he’s still heavy handed. That’s a big risk big reward type fight.
Now that Benn has been going to the body more and more his growth curve isn’t close to plateauing. He’s now shown he can push the pace and work off of a solid jab. His feinting and his movement is improving. Benn’s making all the right in-round reads as he breaks down the fighter across the ring from him. For any opponent who can’t keep him off of them, it’ll be a long night at the office.
