Conor Benn says he doesn’t blame Amir Khan for ducking him, claiming: “Who needs me in their life?”
Khan hastily backtracked on his bravado about facing Benn after watching the Destroyer live up to his nickname by demolishing Chris van Heerden in four minutes. Benn invited Khan into the ring at Manchester’s AO Arena in the hope he would challenge him only for the former world champion to say he was just there “as a fan” to prompt boos from the crowd.
The unbeaten Benn, who is now 21-0, understands his reluctance and says he would not want to face him if he were Khan. “I saw a few articles from him, saying he fancies the fight with me so I thought we would get him in the ring and if he said ‘yeah, I fancy it,’ it would be a done deal,” he said.
“But he didn’t, so we know that’s not the case. I can’t blame him because if I was him I wouldn’t fancy it. Who needs me in their life? It’s fine and I’m on a different trajectory. He’s a former world champion, look what he’s achieved in the sport of boxing, it’s sad he got booed, but it is what it is.”
Kell Brook is also ducking Benn and Eddie Hearn says he is so keen to avoid him that he is going up to 158lbs to fight Chris Eubank Junior at catchweight. “These are all compliments to Conor Benn because don’t forget when we were negotiating Brook-Khan, I dropped in that offer to Khan and said ‘let’s make the Conor Benn fight’ and it wasn’t that he was scared of Conor, but he didn’t want a young, horrible, pest in the ring who would brutalise him,” said the Matchroom MD.
“Now we’ve offered to Kell Brook the same money he got for fighting Amir Khan, and he asked for £10million. That tells you everything you need to know. Now he’s looking to fight Chris Eubank at 158 rather than fighting Conor Benn at his weight! We’d take that fight at 150, so that’s a compliment to Conor Benn because they’re looking at him and thinking ‘he’s a horrible, spiteful, motherf****r so you’ve got to give me £10million to fight that horrible, spiteful motherf****r. I’ll fight Chris Eubank instead at 158lbs’. What a compliment!”
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Hearn is already planning Benn’s homecoming at The O2 this summer against the likes of Maurice Hooker, Keith Thurman, Mikey Garcia, Danny Garcia or Adrien Broner as they close in on a world title shot. Hearn said: “Tonight he was supposed to fight Maurice Hooker, which is actually a really good fight, and if we fight sooner rather than later, that could be a name again. If we wait until later in the summer, then Mikey Garcia, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Adrien Broner, these are all massive fights that fill up the O2.”
Hearn felt fighting his first southpaw in van Heerden would be good experience for Benn and he took just under four minutes to learn everything he needed. Benn, 25, hurt the South African in the first round, although he took a few counterpunches, before he ended it 59 seconds into the second. He pinned van Heerden in the corner with a left hook, followed by a right uppercut and right hook to flatten him.
“I wasn’t surprised,” said the Ilford fighter. “I hit him in the first round hard and when you hit someone hard, you know it hurts them. I knew he was going to try and use his trickiness, but it wasn’t going to work for him and I caught up with him. I believe I’m one of the best welterweights in the world. I ain’t fussed who I fight next, I’ll fight whoever, any of them.”
