‘Getting Conor Benn to understand he’s not Anthony Joshua’ hardest part of Chris Eubank Jnr negotiations, says promoter

Promoter Ben Shalom believes it could be a matter of time before a deal is finally struck to match Chris Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn.

Shalom, who at Boxxer promotes Eubank Jnr, said: “If I was a betting man, it will be done in the next week.”

Benn’s promoter Eddie Hearn had earlier in the week told BoxingScene that a deal could be struck in the next few days, and while Hearn said WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios remains an option for Benn, Shalom says terms have been outlined for Eubank to take on WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara if they have to go in another direction.

Both promoters have said negotiations have been difficult. But with a glitzy boxing ceremony for The Ring in London on Saturday, an announcement could coincide with that event.

Eubank and Benn were due to fight more than two years ago in a bout rooted in the rivalry of their famous fighting fathers. But after Benn failed tests for the drug clomefine, the fight fell apart at the last minute and a showpiece rivalry has become a far more personal feud, which has made negotiations far harder this time around.

“You know what it is,” said Shalom. “I’ve not been in this as long as the other promoters and I remember doing Amir Khan-Kell Brook, and I couldn’t understand why the fight couldn’t get made because I was thinking, you [the fighters] are effectively business partners. You can put on an event that’s going to make you generational money together and all you have to do is agree on something. I always thought with Amir and Kell, why can’t you just understand that you guys can make loads of money together? But the problem is, they couldn’t stand being in the same room as each other and there was genuine hate and that had built up over years and years. There was a bitterness of Kell’s family towards Amir and all the history of that, and I kind of understood it. With Chris and Conor, I kind of thought from the outside this is just a pantomime fight, but it’s been really difficult, because they’re both… Conor’s got an even bigger ego than Chris Eubank Jnr and I’m not sure how! And it’s made it difficult. It has.”

Asked whether such an event would be screened by Sky Sports, who work with Eubank and Boxxer, and DAZN, who have Hearn and Benn, Shalom nodded. “I think that’s the easy part. I think the hard part is getting the fighters to agree.” 

And while Eubank is often said to be the difficult one when it comes to talks, this time Shalom claims that Benn has been the one hardest to work with on the deal.

Asked what the most difficult part of discussions have been, Shalom said: “Getting Conor to understand that he’s not Anthony Joshua. I think getting Conor to be sensible. If this was Chris Eubank Jnr three or four years ago probably when he was more hot-headed, he’s actually taken a pretty reasonable, mature approach to this whole thing. I genuinely believe that. It’s just about making sure the other side do as well. I think it will get done.”