BENN GAINS FAMILY REVENGE AT THE THIRD TIME OF ASKING

November 18th 1990…

The night in which Nigel Benn was emphatically stopped by Chris Eubank Sr.

Thirty-five years on, one draw and another defeat later, Conor Benn claimed sweet revenge for the Benn family as he put on a career-best performance to dominate and outclass Chris Eubank Jr in front of a packed-out Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The narratives spoke for themselves in the build-up.

The narratives from the two fathers and the narratives from Benn’s defeat to Eubank Jr back in April.

From the off, it was a case of the young man out-young-manning the older man.

Unlike the first fight, Benn came out and used his brain.

He took the centre of the ring and his jab was boomerang-like. He looked quicker, he looked sharper, and Eubank just didn’t have any answers.

It was an odd start from Eubank — so odd you almost thought it was part of a plan to give Benn false confidence and make him fall into a false sense of security.

As the rounds went on, Benn gained confidence, and it became more and more clear that Eubank didn’t have the answers needed to work his way back into the fight.

The only time Eubank looked dangerous was when Benn went off-plan and became reckless.

It was an incredibly mature performance from Conor — a coming-of-age performance.

With the fight well and truly slipping away from Eubank, he needed to up the pace, but he just couldn’t.

His chin, as expected, held up incredibly well. Benn hit him with shots that would have buzzed heavyweights, and Eubank just laughed and returned fire.

That was until the last minute of the fight.

Benn caught him around the temple and his legs turned to jelly.

With half a minute left, he rose to his feet, but he was a sitting duck.

Somehow — and testament to his durability — he made it to the final bell, but there was a clear winner.

The scorecards came in: 119–107, 116–110 and 118–108, all in favour of Benn.

Revenge was done, and revenge was sweet. Take a bow, Conor Benn.

Earlier on in the card, though, there was a statement victory from Jack Catterall.

In his first fight under the tutelage of Bozy Ennis, Catterall dropped the durable Ekow Essuman twice on his way to securing an 11th-round stoppage victory.

It looked all but over in the fourth when Essuman hit the deck for the first time, but, like his alias suggests, the Nottingham man used his engine to rally and make it a trickier night’s work at the office for Catterall than it had first seemed likely to be.

A huge statement from El Gato, who now puts himself in pole position for a crack at the winner of next week’s WBO world title clash between Brian Norman Jr and Devin Haney.

Also on the card, Ishmael Davis survived a nervy round 11 to edge out Sam Gilley in a belting contest to become the new British & Commonwealth Super-Welterweight champion, whilst there were stoppage wins for Mikie Tallon, Richard Riakporhe and Adam Azim.

A card fit for a sold-out stadium, and a performance from Conor Benn fit for the history books.