You try and digest that he was washed up with balance issues and a shadow on his brain. You see what you want to see. You have got great imagination.
If he was washed up, he wouldn't of walked in and floored heavily his bogeyman Malinga with a perfectly timed short overhand right or gone 50/50 with Collins over 10 rounds. He did seem to struggle to keep his balance when falling short with a shot against Nardiello and Collins, whereas the old Nigel Benn always came back with another shot which was his quite rare ability (superb natural punching leverages).
Malinga had the perfect remedy for Benn's awesome body and head movement and that was to jab from the hip, so Benn couldn't see it coming or even dipped into it. A heavyweight Tommy Hearns, if you will, would've had similar success against Smokin' Joe, stylistically or technique wise.
He made Gerald miss almost everything after the first round, and reduced Chris at Old Trafford to 12 rounds of inaccurate shoeshiners.
In fact there was a rapid fire 6 or 7 shot combination that Eubank flurried off in the 7th or 8th at OT that Benn actually slides and weaves his head around not being touched! Never seen anything like it.
He was clearly washed up. He’d retired after Malinga. He had to bet a huge sum of money on himself for the only time in his career, in order for it to give him a boost. You’ve said yourself that you think he quit in 4 rounds and faked an ankle injury to get out of the first fight. He had a shadow on his brain. He had balance issues. He retired after because he had nothing left to give. HELLO!! That’s the very definition of a washed up fighter. Sort yourself out.
There was nothing in the fights until the 5th of the second fight when Benn lost something after his **** trainer Kevin Sanders said 'I'm going to pull you out soon if he take any more shots, I won't see you take another beating (like McClellan)' - imagine his former trainer Jimmy Tibbs saying something so pathetic and ridiculous in a 50/50 war, talk about losing adrenalin. That combined with the fact Collins just wasn't going over or even rocking from so many Huge shots, and Benn's MENTAL frailty just took over from there.