British boxing legend Nigel Benn, the father of rising welterweight Conor Benn, says a potential fight with Chris Eubank Jr. should take place at the full middleweight limit of 160-pounds.
The fight was scheduled to take place earlier this month, but it was postponed when Benn failed a drug test administered by testing agency VADA. The British Boxing Board of Control prohibited the fight from going forward.
It remains to be seen if the fight will ever get rescheduled, as Benn is now under investigation by the British Board and UK-Anti Doping. If found guilty, the younger could be banned for several years.
The fight was scheduled to take place at a catch-weight of 157-pounds.
Even before news broke of the failed test - Eubank's father - Chris Eubank Sr. - was demanding the fight get canceled, because he felt his son's life was in danger due to a tough weight cut.
After reviewing a recent image of Eubank Jr. - looking very thin and making the contracted weight - Nigel Benn now agrees that 157 is just too low for his son's opponent.
"Chris kept saying 'my son can't do this, my son can't make the weight of 157' so I said I didn't choose the weight your son chose it," Nigel Benn said, according to The Mirror.
"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 realize please forgive me Chris'. I said to Conor, 'If you do fight him, he's not fighting at 157-pounds, I want you to fight him at 160-pounds.
"Personally, I believe that if the fight would have happened Conor would have hurt him just like what 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."
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