{"id":535826,"date":"2026-04-17T10:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/535826\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:59:07","slug":"conor-benn-refused-fights-with-two-world-champions-says-eddie-hearn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/535826\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor Benn refused fights with two world champions says Eddie Hearn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Eddie Hearn has revealed that Conor Benn shot down the idea of fights with two reigning world champions before their promotional split.<\/p>\n<p>Benn twice fought Chris Eubank Jr at middleweight during 2025, avenging his first career defeat in their November rematch before announcing a planned return to the welterweight division.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The Destroyer\u2019 then made the surprising move from career-long promoter Hearn to Dana White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing \u2013 albeit for a one-fight deal \u2013 and marked this partnership with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cn9qzz0l5d2o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">decision win against Regis Prograis this past weekend.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Underwhelmed by the performance of his former fighter, Hearn told <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/uARZRBiII7c?si=d_kzjnUea3K82YXl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boxing Now<\/a> that he believes Benn to be more effective at super-welterweight or even middleweight. The promoter then revealed that he had presented the opportunity to face IBF welterweight champion Lewis Crocker, or compete against the IBF\u2019s 154 champion, Josh Kelly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe knows his level. I wanted him to fight Lewis Crocker. We went for lunch and I said, \u2018mate, you could fight Lewis Crocker, that is a great fight. That is a very tough fight but, if you win that fight, you are a world champion\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[He said], \u2018I don\u2019t want to fight Lewis Crocker, I don\u2019t like Billy Nelson [Crocker\u2019s previous trainer]\u2019, I said \u2018What the f**k has that got to do with it? Just fight him\u2019. Then, we talked about Josh Kelly, [he said], \u2018Nah, f**k Josh Kelly\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI actually think that he is right [to do that] because he is only going to make a few million to fight those guys and Zuffa just sp**ked their load giving him 15 [million] to fight a bloke who couldn\u2019t even stand up!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/conor-benn-next-opponent-talks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Though Benn was uninterested in those champions, he has made it absolutely clear that he wants WBC welterweight champion Ryan Garcia next, and talks seem to be progressing quickly.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn has revealed that Conor Benn shot down the idea of fights with two reigning world champions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-535826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535826","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=535826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}