Conor Benn has described as “short-sighted” Matchroom’s reaction to his departure for Zuffa Boxing.
The 29-year-old on Saturday fights Regis Prograis on the undercard of Tyson Fury-Arslanbek Makhmudov in what represents his first contest at welterweight for four years and the only one for which he has committed to Zuffa.
It was under Matchroom’s guidance that Benn made his professional debut and became one of British boxing’s richest and highest-profile figures.
The announcement of his signing for Zuffa – and Zuffa’s and Dana White’s status as a potential threat to the ambitions of Matchroom and Eddie Hearn – therefore made such a significant impression on observers of and those within their profession that the recriminations are continuing to unfold.
Hearn was particularly critical of Benn not speaking to him directly to tell him of the development. Benn regardless insisted that he hoped that their friendship could be maintained. Hearn’s father Barry – who worked on fights involving Benn’s celebrated father Nigel – has also criticised the welterweight; so, too, has Matchroom’s chief executive Frank Smith.
Eddie Hearn insists that he loaned Benn £500,000 while he was serving a suspension for testing positive for clomifene. Benn insists that that isn’t true. What is recognised beyond doubt is that Matchroom guided him through the difficult period of his career that followed his twice testing positive for the banned substance in the build-up to his cancelled date with Chris Eubank Jnr in 2022, that on Saturday Benn will earn a career-high purse reported to be in the region of $15,000,000, and that on Sunday he will be a free agent once again.
“I don’t have any ill feeling towards – I can’t say Matchroom – but towards Eddie or Frank for coming out with the things that they’ve come out with,” Benn told BoxingScene. “I think that’s maybe maturity or age. But ultimately I’d be mentally ill if I didn’t take this opportunity, considering the [other] offers weren’t even close. It’s not even close. Not close at all.
“You’d sit down and you’d go ‘Well done, Con’, one-fight deal’. It’s a bit short-sighted of them, in my opinion. But based on my experience – my life experience so far – I’m not here to make enemies. I ain’t got it in me to make enemies. I’m here to give my family the best life. If you can understand that, you understand that. If you don’t, you don’t. But ultimately they make decisions best for them and the business – the family business – and they wouldn’t do anything to put the family business in jeopardy. They’d choose the business over me. They’d choose the business over other fighters. Not in a bad way. It just is what it is – you would. So when the fighter comes to do it, the fighter ultimately has one career. They don’t have multiple.
“I’m a bit disappointed on a friendship level. I’m a bit upset that they’re not happy for me, because I made them a lot of money. But I’ve got to look at my family. If you want to talk about loyalty, my loyalty’s to my kids [son Eli, five, and daughter Idony, two] before anybody, because when my career’s said and done, are you gonna pay my bills? Are you gonna pay my mortgage? Are you gonna pay for my kids to go to private school? When I’m all said and done and not a hot topic anymore?
“No one pays for my dad’s bills – and it’s not their job to. It’s my dad’s job to. You make the best decisions for your family and that’s exactly what I’ve done – as they do every single day.
“When a fighter doesn’t do good numbers, guess what – they don’t get put on. But they’ve got a family, right? When I’m not hot news, will I get ringside seats still, at a push? Let alone financial. I take that responsibility on myself to do the best decision for my family.
“I haven’t really seen much of the noise. But, if you’re my friend, as all my friends have – they’re so proud of the door that’s opened and the amount of money I’m making for Regis, it’s insane. But all my friends are happy for me. As a friend, you’d be happy for me that I’ve gone through what I’ve gone through in order to get this deal. ‘Wow, well done, Con’, you’ve set your family up for life.’ That’s not the energy I got or have been getting [from Matchroom]. It’s more, anger, and not happy for me. Knowing that they’re probably all sitting at the table thinking about how they could destroy the deal, or not let the deal go ahead, but it really changes mine and my family’s lives, and I’m blessed that I’ve had this opportunity.”
Benn has refused to rule out a reunion with Matchroom after the fight with the 37-year-old Prograis.
For all that he has been so open and so vocal about the decision Benn has taken, it also remains possible that in sufficiently appealing circumstances Hearn would be willing to promote him again.
“When you’re talking eight figures it’s not really a shit storm, is it?” Benn then responded when asked how the criticism he has endured compared to that that followed the clomifene controversy of 2022. “I don’t know – I’m not on social media, so I don’t see the noise. But I’m also – it don’t change my reality. Heat for changing my family’s life? Heat for signing a mega deal that others can dream of? Heat for having a third stadium fight on the run? Heat for what?
“I don’t really feel much, because does it matter? Does it matter? I like that I’m giving people things to talk about. I like that people are talking, ‘cause when they’re not talking that’s the problem – good or bad. Some people will agree with my decision; some people don’t. I don’t need to seek the approval or validation of anyone. I make the decision I feel’s right for me; for my career; my family; my life. It’s my career; it’s my family; it’s my kids’ life. Everything else is just – why would someone’s opinion matter to me? I don’t even know your name. You’ll never be in my position; you’ll never be in my shoes.
“Many other fighters may say this and say that; they’ll never have an offer for eight figures sitting on the table. They’ll never have the opportunities that I had. They’ll never have this. I just wouldn’t even think to comment on somebody else’s situation or business decision or family decision. But if other fighters wanna do that to me it makes no difference. I’m not even gonna know them in a year’s time; two years’ time. I don’t even talk to fighters now.
“I honestly just stay in my zone. I don’t talk to many fighters – I don’t talk to no fighters.”
