NIGEL BENN will have a brain monitor at ringside after his son failed to end his comeback dream. Conor Benn lost the biggest fight of his career, with his dad returning to the ring at 55. The 22-year-old begged the former two-weight world champ NOT to lace up his gloves after 23 years of retirement […]
NIGEL BENN will have a brain monitor at ringside after his son failed to end his comeback dream.
Conor Benn lost the biggest fight of his career, with his dad returning to the ring at 55.
The 22-year-old begged the former two-weight world champ NOT to lace up his gloves after 23 years of retirement on November 23.
But the Dark Destroyer wants ‘closure’ against the former world champion Sakio Bika, 40, in a ten-round light-heavyweight clash in Birmingham.
The one-off bout will be sanctioned by little-known ‘British & Irish Boxing Authority’, after the British Boxing Board of Control refused to be involved.
But BIBA at least insist on Infra-Scanners, the £12,000 handheld brain monitors that can spot a potentially lethal bleed in under three minutes, being ringside.
Conor said: “I remember when he cried at the press conference ahead of my debut, because he did not want me to fight.
“I get goosebumps at the memory of it because now I don’t want to see my dad fight, it’s horrible.
“I have said my piece, I have said ‘Dad, I don’t want you to do this, because you are my dad’ but he is going to do it, so I’ll support his decision.”
Conor fears his father’s first clash in over two decades, which he promises is a one-off, could lead to serious harm.
The 15-0 Tony Sims-trained welterweight said: “He says it’s only one but if he wins inside one round or six there could be more.
“This one is a real concern, as his son, because I know what it is like getting hit, it is horrible. No one wants to see their dad get punched in the face.”
Nigel believes he is the fittest 55-year-old on the planet and the depression and sex and drug addictions he somehow juggled in his 1990’s glory days means we never saw the best of him.
Retiring in 1996 after defeats to Irish hero Steve Collins left him yearning for one more bow-out fight, after a lifetime fighting demons after his brother was killed in a racist attack.
Benn said: “‘I suffered with a lot of issues in my life from a young age, from 1972 when my brother died — the murder of my brother — which I carried through to my adult life.
“I was dealing with depression, I virtually lived in the Ministry of Sound. The only time I had peace was when I was training. That was it.
“It’s been a long time coming. This fight is all about me. It wasn’t financial.
“It was always about closure that I wanted but never had.”
