Former world champion Nigel Benn said it would be “back to the drawing board” for his son after Conor Benn lost the first fight of his professional career, to Chris Eubank Jnr.
They met in a highly-anticipated bout at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last night, some 30 years on from the historic fights Nigel Benn had with Chris Eubank Snr.
“I take my hat off to Chris,” said Nigel. “He performed well. I don’t think Conor performed to the best of his ability. He was winging a lot of his shots, I’m not knocking my son because I love my son, I’ve always got his back. But we all have defeats and he’ll come back from this. Now he’s lost a fight and can go back to the drawing board and know where he went wrong; take his time and come back. Because I know he has heart to be a winner.”
Benn, who lost the first fight to Eubank Snr and drew in the second, admitted he had been impressed by Eubank Jnr, but said the defeat and the experience would make his son a better fighter.
“I’m proud of him,” said Benn. “Win, lose or draw, I’m proud of my son. We thought we was gonna even the score but he’ll go back and try again, just like I did.
“We will go back, work hard again, and what we did wrong we will put right… Brush yourself down and start again. He’ll learn from this.”
