Nigel Benn wants his son Conor to fight Chris Eubank Jr at 160lb if the fight can be rescheduled following the young star's failed drugs test.
Benn was set to meet bitter rival Eubank Jr in a huge domestic dust-up last week, over 30 years on from their fathers' first meeting in the ring. However after weeks of build-up and anticipation, the fight was cancelled at the last minute following the British Boxing Board of Control's decision to prohibit the fight.
It remains unclear if the fight can be rescheduled with Benn currently under investigation and facing a potential ban from the sport if he is found guilty. Controversy had already surrounded the fight prior to the test, with Eubank Jr's father declaring his unhappiness with his son being required to cut his weight to 157lb, three lower than his optimum 160lb weight.
And Benn's father Nigel has admitted he text his son demanding that the pair fight at 160lb after images emerged of Eubank Jr's body following the cut. "Chris kept saying 'my son can't do this, my son can't make the weight of 157lb' so I said I didn't choose the weight your son chose it," Benn's father Nigel said during a recent leg of his tour with Chris Sr.
"So we kept going back and forth and Chris kept saying 'He isn't going to make weight, he will not be strong and I'm going to stop this.' We kept on going on and then I saw a picture of Chris Eubank Jr [making weight for the fight]. His body is emaciated. I sent Chris Sr a text saying, 'Sorry, I didn't realise please forgive me Chris'. I said to Conor, 'If you do fight him, he's not fighting at 157lb, I want you to fight him at 160lb.
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"Personally I believe that if the fight would have happened Conor would have hurt him just like happened with Gerald McClellan. I don't want nothing on my son's head saying 'he is on drugs' not until I clear my son's name. I do not want my son going through the same thing I went through with McClellan."
Eubank Jr did indeed step on the scales following the cancellation of the fight to prove he would have made the rehydration clause for fight night on the following day of the weigh-in. Benn has denied wrongdoing and insists he will prove his innocence.
