(Reuters) – Former world champion Chris Eubank said he wants his son’s fight against Conor Benn scrapped due to concerns about the 157 pounds weight limit, with Chris Eubank Jr. having never fought below 160 pounds in his professional career.
British boxers Eubank Jr. and Benn are scheduled to face off in a highly-anticipated bout at London’s O2 Arena on Oct. 8, three decades after their famous fathers fought each other.
Eubank Jr. (32-2, 23 knockouts) has fought at middleweight and super-middleweight, while Benn (21-0, 14 knockouts) boxes at welterweight, so their meeting has been fixed at a catchweight of 157 pounds.
“My son is a warrior, he will fight anyone. But I told him, you cannot go beneath 160, and he’s gone down to 157. It cannot happen,” Eubank Sr. told the Times. “That is called suicide. I don’t do that to my son. I’m not putting him in that field.
“I am managing my son’s career. Irrespective of what he has said, irrespective of what he has written down and signed, it can’t happen.
“I’ve already lost one son,” he added, referring to his son Sebastian who died of a heart attack at 29 last year.
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
