Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn overdeliver on expectations in giving fans a cinematic masterpiece

Every once in a while, if we’re lucky, boxing will remind us why the best stories are the ones written in blood, sweat and tears. 

With enough family drama and swerves to fill a reality television script, the story of how Saturday’s pay-per-view grudge match between Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn came to be had already been a soap opera that was multiple decades in the making. But the fight itself, overflowing with pageantry inside London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and matching a pair of flashy personas who had each yet to achieve their defining moment, somehow exceeded every bit of expectation coming in.

It was emotional. It was savage. And it had a Round 12 that belonged on the cutting room floor of a “Rocky” sequel. 

Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn results, highlights: Eubank earns win over bitter rival in Fight of the Year

Brent Brookhouse

Heck, this 160-pound grudge match felt like it could easily close 2025 as the fight of the year, if not — as my CBS Sports colleague, Brent Brookhouse, was first to anoint — enter the conversation for best of the decade as we approach the midway point. This was emotional theater in a way that doesn’t hold things like missed punches or flawed technique against it because of how necessary those imperfections were to helping illustrate how enthralling this desperate war of attrition truly was. 

The fact that Eubank (35-3, 25 KOs) scored a victory via unanimous decision (116-112 on all three scorecards) became almost a subplot compared to what the two English-born boxers had accomplished in totality.

Eubank, who barely missed the 160-pound weight limit on Friday and was forced to pay $500,000 before also passing a day-of rehydration check (set at 170 pounds), paired the same ambitions, regrets and prior traumas that the 28-year-old Benn entered the ring with to mix up an explosive cocktail of heart, will and unadulterated stubbornness.

The fight, which was originally booked in 2022 until Benn failed a drug test and blamed it on his large consumption of eggs, legitimately captured the attention of the combat sporting world despite there not being a world title at stake and neither boxer necessarily going anywhere. Eubank, 35, was considered to be entering his twilight while Benn, a natural welterweight, hadn’t looked overly impressive in a pair of decision wins at 154 pounds in the aftermath of his drug issues. 

These flashy underachievers could have merely accepted big paychecks to cosplay through their inevitable clash to cash in on the nostalgic hangover of their respective fathers’ legendary rivalry. Chris Eubank Sr. scored a TKO over Nigel Benn in a 1990 middleweight title defense before the two settled for a split draw in their 1993 unification at 168 pounds. 

Instead, they carved out their own spot in British boxing lore as second-generation stars who are set to make career-defining money for as long as their in-ring rivalry continues. 

Whatever size, strength and experience advantages Eubank entered with were nullified by the effects of the dehydration clause, not to mention the huevos (pun not intended) shown by Benn, who visibly looked two divisions smaller than Eubank yet threw caution to the wind throughout by mixing head movement with explosive punch attempts. 

The fight had several sections of ebbs and flow as each fighter took turns controlling the terms. At times, Benn routinely landed the bigger shots as he wobbled Eubank and effectively turned him into a boxer. At other times, Eubank dug insanely deep into his gas tank to just overwhelm Benn behind his bigger jab, which inevitably led to incredible pockets of two-way brawling, usually against the ropes. 

As Eubank said it himself repeatedly after the fight, in a notion that the rest of the boxing world, undoubtedly, agrees with: “I didn’t know Benn had that in him.” The amount of affirming and self-realizing moments available to Benn, who pushed contractually for a tiny, 18-foot ring to ensure a firefight, can take away from this performance could go a long way in redefining the remainder of his career. 

And as Eubank’s father, who was beaming in pride, said so truthfully after the fight about his son, “that was legendary behavior in the ring.”

Had this same fight taken place between different fighters and on a different platform other than the debut of Turki Alalshikh’s new boxing series branded by “The Ring” magazine he recently purchased and in front of 66,000 fans in a soccer stadium, it might not have produced the same amount of feels. But when you pair a great action fight with a storyline featuring historic rivalries, a shameless egging after a press conference and a staged beef that was expertly executed over the last few weeks by the father/son Eubank team, you are talking about another thing altogether.  

They weren’t anywhere near each other in weight yet made a perfect in-ring match. And much of their respective careers had featured a lack of direction until they each resurrected their names by finding themselves through one another. 

This wasn’t a fight, it was a movie. And I can’t wait for the sequel.