“It’s a hard one to swallow,” sighed a dejected Conor Benn at last night’s post-fight media conference. “It’s a hard one to swallow. I didn’t come into the fight thinking it would be that close. I didn’t come into the fight to lose. I didn’t come in the fight for anything but to win it, and it wasn’t good enough. So I need to do better.”
Benn had just lost his undefeated record to bitter rival Chris Eubank Jnr in a pulsating London war.
He was not crying robbery, nor did he say the better man won. He needed to watch it back to draw more measured and less emotional conclusions.
“I didn’t really think I lost the fight. I don’t want to say… I don’t want to be delusional and say, ‘Yeah, I think I won the fight or I think I lost the fight’,” Benn added. “I think it was a close fight and that’s it. I could have done better. Fourteen months out of the ring maybe played a factor in the fight. But what an amazing turnout. It really did feel like a homecoming and it’s a blessing to be fighting on British soil.”
Benn said he’d heard that Eubank Jnr had been taken to hospital. Eubank Jnr did not attend the post-fight press conference and Benn had heard the Brighton man might have sustained a broken jaw.
“I wish him well,” said Benn. “I know he’s gone to the hospital. I’ve heard he’s got a broken jaw, so I wish him a speedy recovery.”
Benn also took the time out to thank Chris Eubank Snr for attending, something that reportedly hung in the balance all the way through fight week.
“It wouldn’t have been what it was without Senior here,” Benn admitted.
“If this has brought them together, that’s worth its weight in gold.”
The Essex battler was open to future offerings, whether it was a return with Eubank, or a WBC title fight at welterweight with Mario Barrios.
Of fighting Eubank again, Benn said: “I want my revenge, man. I want my revenge.”
And, of wanting to face Barrios, he added: “If Barrios is watching, I’d love that but I feel like I just want to settle this.”
Benn had given it everything he had, and was frustrated because having Eubank hurt several times in the fight he said he couldn’t “pull the trigger and get him out of there.”
Asked whether there was newfound respect with a man who for two years had become an arch enemy, Benn smiled through gritted teeth: “He still ain’t my cuppa tea. I wouldn’t go and sit down and have a chat with him, but of course there is. There’s respect. Obviously. We’ve gone 12 rounds together. But he’s Chris, isn’t he? So I like him as much as I possibly can, given the situation.”
