Popular star has been called out by recently-crowned British world titlist.
It’s never easy when the son of a legend decides to take up the same profession as his great father. The expectation going in is that they will achieve similar feats, as the idea is “anything that comes from greatness must also be great”.
This leaves the son of the legend to bear a weight like Atlas holding up the heavens, and we have seen them capitulate beneath this pressure time and time again.
Julio César Chávez Jr., Tim Tszyu, Marvis Frazier, Ronald Hearns, Campbell Hatton.
Chris Eubank Jr.
Conor Benn.
It’s these last two examples that are especially relevant here. Of course, Benn and Eubank Jr. fought twice in 2025, providing us with two spectacles of vastly different nature.
The first was a war. The second was a whitewash.
It’s Conor Benn that came out on that right end of that whitewash, and opportunities have been opened up for him as a result.
Recently, Benn signed with Zuffa Boxing in a shock move, and it wasn’t too long later that we found out Benn’s first opponent under Dana White’s new company would be a 150-pound catchweight affair against former super-lightweight world champion Regis Prograis.
This fight will serve as the co-main event to Tyson Fury vs. Arslanbek Makhmudov on the 11th of April, and Benn will reportedly be earning at least $15 million.
There have been those who have criticised this fight, and one person who has been a critic of Conor Benn in general is Josh ‘Pretty Boy’ Kelly, who also claimed he would beat Benn easily in an interview with talkSPORT Boxing.
When asked if he would choose a fight with Benn over a unification, Kelly replied, “I think I’d be silly not to. If I’ve already got a belt, I’m riskin’ this belt to fight a guy with two other belts [Xander Zayas] who’s better than Conor Benn, and Conor Benn brings more money to the table, and I figures I’ll flatten Conor.”
Kelly recently claimed the IBF super-welterweight title by taming the beast that was Bakhram Murtazaliev, and a fight between Kelly and Benn would be the second all-British super-welterweight title fight in history after Liam Smith fought Jimmy Kelly for the WBO title in December of 2015.
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