Conor Benn Will Go Down As The UK's Best Ever Welterweight.

Gone up 3 divisions

 

Better than Lloyd Honeyghan, John H Stracey, Ricky Hatton, Kell Brook?

I doubt it.

 

Unfortunately for Henn his best weight is in between WW and LMW.

Maybe need to create him a new division. Poultryweight.

 

147 is catastrophically bad at the moment, but Crocker knocking out Eggs Bennedict with a punch from the heavens, like the one he hit Donovan with, would be one of the great KOs in the history of British boxing.

 

Benn has just gone 1 - 1 with a 36yr old ghost of himself euro level Eubank.

He reminds me of Joshua, both can punch that’s about where their talent ends, ridiculous hype, roided to the gills, no particular boxing skill to speak of beating up on old men.

Bum

 

Think likes of Kirkland Laing would of given him a mental headache in the ring and a style that would of embarrassed him.

Colin Jones would certainly of been able to out man Benn and break him.

Benn is 28, he's ability wise European level, world class? Nope.

 

Colin Jones would destroy him. It would be brutal, unlikely Conor fights again.

Laing would probably do a George Collins on him.

If Benn ventured up to light-middle imagine what hardman Andy Till would do to him!

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George Collins was the archetype of the protected fighter. Thirty-five fights, never past eight rounds, and then his whole career fell apart in two. Madness how he was shielded for so long and then suddenly fed to Laing straight after the Jacobs fight.

I read Gary’s book recently – he was another one who nearly had his career wrecked by being overmatched by Mike Barrett after beating Collins, and had to graft like hell to work his way back both in and then again out of the ring once his career finished.

Laing was one of my personal favourites as a kid, being from the local area. But he was always his own worst enemy. Every time he was on the brink of breaking out, something went wrong. After the Collins win he was toying with Buck Smith… then bingo, one shot and it all went sideways again.

And as you said, Jones would absolutely body Benn. He was a vicious fighter in the ring – I remember watching old VHS tapes of his, and another that was as close as you can get to winning a belt without actually winning one.

 

Didn´t know Gary Jacobs had a book out, just checked it out on Amazon. Will be getting for X-mas.

Was a huge fan of Jacobs, never afraid to travel abroad, went as a complete unknown to Las Vegas to hammer the the favoured Javier Suazo.

Was outcpointed by the excellent Buddy McGirt, avoided by many, in New York but performed well.

Rebounded from losses, especially the one punch ko loss to Mickey Hughes who he had been dominating, to take the European title and dominated Europe before fighting well against the great Whitaker.

Really wanted to see him fight Eamonn Loughran for the WBO title, I guess Whitaker was more money but had he beaten Loughran (I think he would have) I think he might have crammed in a few defenses. Jose Luis Lopez would have been difficult though!

I saw Laing "live" for the 1st time against Mittee, what a character and I was so happy when he won the Euro title and Lonsdale outright.

Love his kos of Antoine Fernadez, Collins, Trevor Smith and Rocky Kelly. I read his book, strongly recommend. Gutted when he died.

George Collins did have some talent (as did his brother Tony) but the opposition was so poor.

Actually gave his best performance against Jacobs, likely Gary came on strong to nearly stop him in the last.

Collins should have been fighting Rocky Kelly, Chris Sanigar, Kostau Petrou or a fellow prospect like Dave Dent who had talent but not a great chin.

George did beat a young Del Bryan in his best win but think he would have struggled a few years later .

Fellow Frank Warren prospect, Tommy Shiels at the same time would have destroyed Collins in 2 rounds. Shame he had to retire early, I think hand problems.

 

That Laing book is a rare find now, a proper collectors’ item. I always preferred Tony over George; he had real talent but never the dedication, and after that close loss to Swift Jnr he was never the same. I remember Till walking through him as well.

And yeah, George got too comfortable in those 8-rounders and never really improved, so when he finally stepped up he was out of his depth. The chin wasn’t great either. He even made Gary Stretch famous as an amateur.

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This aged well

 

I think this thread is Phil's finest work, up there with Billy Nelson's foray into crypto.

 

If Benn had to do it on merit and not off his dads name he would never get to domestic title level. He would have been bounced around by that French part timer and either packed it in or become a journey man himself, which is the reality for most boxers who turn pro. He's shite.

 

I think the natural rivalry with Eubank Jr was an equally big launch pad – as much as either of them trading off their fathers' names. Ability-wise there's not much between Conor and Campbell Hatton, to be honest.

Jr, on the other hand, had a period when he was on AJ undercards, around the time where he eventually lost his pen, where he'd actually progressed beyond domestic level and looked good doing so. Whereas with Conor, he bypassed all of that, and obviously the ban when he was on a run of form didn't help either.

Also quite possible, had Eubank Jr started faster, he could've possibly beaten an underprepared Saunders.

 

I hope one day the truth comes out about the Bennt family's drug cheating.

Both father and son are nasty pieces of work..