“Benn Will Maul Him”: Abel Sanchez Foresees A Physical And Ugly Fight Resulting In A Late Stoppage Of Chris Eubank Jr. – Boxing News 24

Trainer Abel Sanchez is leaning in the direction of Conor Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) defeating Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3, 25 KOs) in their fight this Saturday night on DAZN PPV at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England. Sanchez believes that Benn will fight above his size due to his willingness to load up on his shots.

He notes that Eubank’s habit of dropping his hands could come back to haunt him, with him potentially clipped by Benn. He expects Conor to attack from the first bell, applying nonstop pressure, forcing Eubank Jr. to defend the entire time. He thinks Benn will push him around, rough him up, and maul the older fighter.

If Eubank Jr. can still move like he did in his younger days, he should be able to neutralize the pressure from Benn and outbox him.

“Ugly Fight” Warning

“You’re looking at Conor as being the smaller guy. He’s going to be so much stronger than Chris Eubank, because Chris doesn’t use his strength. He tried to use his boxing ability. He’s got a nice jab. He drops his hands, he tries to be on his toes, and tries to be things that are not going to be good against a Conor Benn,” said trainer Abel Sanchez to Fight Hub TV, previewing Saturday’s fight between Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn.

Eubank Jr. doesn’t swing for the fences now compared to how he used to fight when he was younger, but he’s gotten smarter. He can’t fight the way he used to because he’s in his mid-30s now and must rely on his ring smarts. If Benn rushes him, he could get caught by one of his hooks because he’s got power on his shots, and the natural size advantage.

“Conor Benn is going to attack from the first bell to the last bell, and he’s going to push him around, muscle him around, foul him. It’s going to be an ugly fight,” continued Abel. “He [Benn] stops him late. Against Liam Smith, he [Eubank Jr] kept dropping his hands right before he dropped him. He was dropping them below his waist.”

The real problem that Abel Sanchez is overlooking is how weak Conor Benn’s resume is, and how poor he’s looked in his last two fights since he was popped for a banned PED in 2022. It’s impossible to ignore the drop-off in performance from Conor in his last two fights against Peter Dobson and Rodolfo Orozo.

If Benn was any good, he should have blown out those fighters like he’d done before he tested positive for the banned PED. There’s been a big drop-off in Conor’s performances. Sanchez seems to be stuck on the memories of the three-year surge from 2019 to 2022, where Benn was knocking everybody out.

Before 2019, Conor had looked below-average, laboring to beat low-level fighters like Cedrick Peynaud in 2018 and getting the stuffing beaten out of him by him in a controversial decision in their first fight. In Benn’s last two fights, he’s returned to looking like what he once was – a mediocre fighter destined to go nowhere.

Benn’s Attack Plan

“He was moving his upper body up and down like Muhammad Ali, trying Liam on. Conor is a little stronger. He may not be the [same] puncher, but he’s going to land some shots when your hands are down like that. He’s going to be on him like white on rice. I would say Conor because he tries to hit you harder,” said Sanchez when asked who hits harder between Benn and Eubank Jr.

Bringing up Eubank Jr’s fourth-round knockout loss to Liam Smith from two years ago is irrelevant to this fight. That was a fight in which Chris Jr. made a mistake by backing up against the corner. He avenged the loss later that year, knocking out Smith in the tenth round on September 2nd, 2023. In Eubank Jr’s fights since then, he’s not made the same mistake.

“I think it’ll be a good fight because they both have a chip on their shoulder and both are decent fighters. I think Conor fights bigger than his weight. I think Chris makes a lot of mistakes and leaves himself exposed too often. Liam Smith caught him with some shots and was able to hurt him. Even though Conor is coming, he fights bigger than whoever is in front of him.

“Conor may be a 147-pounder, but he fights like a 160-pounder. His aggression and his strength are much more demanding for an opponent than Chris’s. Chris is more of a stand-up guy who likes to box,” said Sanchez.