Benn<\/a> returned to the ring for the first time since beating Chris Eubank Jr in November, as he took on former world champion Regis Prograis at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.<\/p>\nThe Brit boxed under the Matchroom banner for his two bouts against Eubank, before controversially signing with Dana White-backed Zuffa earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Hearn explained that he was not informed of Zuffa\u2019s approach and only found out through a lawyer\u2019s letter. He also claimed Benn refused to speak to him when he requested a phone call with the fighter.<\/p>\n
The Matchroom chief also said he had loaned Benn huge sums of money \u2014 although the fighter denied this.<\/p>\n
Despite the recent split, Benn has insisted that he still respects Hearn while also not holding any regrets over his decision to move on from Matchroom after a decade with the company.<\/p>\n
“I love Eddie. I love Eddie,” he insisted. “I don’t feel no type of way at all to any of the noise or anything that’s being said, it’s just one of the things, isn’t it?<\/p>\n
“What I do know, what I can say is my kids are set up for life. What I can say is this changes my kids’ kids’ life.<\/p>\n
“What I can say is it’s an opportunity I couldn’t turn down, irrelevant of all the noise, irrelevant of everything. Hopefully we [Eddie] can sit down.”<\/p>\n
The pair have taken various digs at each other in interviews since Benn\u2019s switch, but on Saturday they were finally in close quarters for the first time since their split.<\/p>\n
Despite sustaining a cut above his right eye, the Brit boxed to a unanimous decision victory, with all three judges scoring the contest 98\u201392 in favour of the Englishman.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old improved his record to 24 wins from 25 bouts in the paid ranks.<\/p>\n
However, not everyone was impressed with Benn\u2019s performance, as eagle-eyed fans spotted Hearn yawning at ringside during the bout, with a video since going viral.<\/p>\n
While Hearn was yawning, Benn\u2019s former foe Eubank Jr was also not paying attention and instead chose to speak to someone on the phone rather than focus on the bout happening just a few feet away from where he was sitting.<\/p>\n
Fans offered their thoughts on social media.<\/p>\n
One said: \u201cEubank\u2019s been on the blower for three rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another added: \u201cEddie Hearn yawning, sitting next to Chris Eubank Jr to watch Conor Benn after he left him for Zuffa Boxing, is next-level hate-watching.\u201d<\/p>\n
While a third claimed: \u201cHearn yawning and Eubank on the phone. Iconic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eagle-eyed fans spotted exactly what Eddie Hearn did during Conor Benn\u2019s first fight under the Zuffa Boxing banner.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,26599,13605,6572,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-526272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-chris-eubank-jr","tag-conor-benn","tag-eddie-hearn","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}