The agonisingly long negotiations between British rivals Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn are officially over.
Benn’s promoter Eddie Hearn set a 48 deadline two days ago as the fight eventually collapsed.
“The deadline has gone and passed.” Kalle Sauerland, Eubank’s promoter, said in an exclusive interview for ProBox TV. “The fight is not even being… There is no back and forth.”
Sauerland appeared remarkably calm while discussing the highly lucrative Eubank-Benn bout slipping through his fingers.
“It’s a huge fight but I’ve also learnt that in the 23 years in putting together different fights, I’m going to quote George Groves ‘everything happens for a reason,’’’ Sauerland continued. “It is what it is. You know, we couldn’t commercially make it happen. When I say commercially to make it happen, the numbers didn’t work out. I’m not going to comment more than that, but it was a private discussion. If people want to do that, they can do that. We couldn’t make the money work.”
Benn has been in licence limbo since relinquishing version following two failed drug tests in the lead up to an originally scheduled pay-per-view contest with Eubank Jr last year. Benn now has a licence with the Florida commission, but is yet to be fully cleared by the British Boxing Board of Control.
“It wasn’t around that, that the fight didn’t happen,” Sauerland explained. “That would have been a second step. But again, I would have turned my attention to the licensing if we got that fight made. We didn’t get the fight made, so I didn’t need to waste any of my two brain cells going to the board.
“He [Hearn]’s got his take on it and I’ve got mine. My take is quite simple, so we didn’t need to talk to the powers that be. And I didn’t want to talk to the powers that be because I didn’t want to waste their time either until we could actually get it done. They have a very different situation with Conor of course. They are in some dialogue with the powers that be, we’ve got a boxer who is licensed and we are a part of the British board.”
With the implosion of Eubank Vs Benn Sauerland has wasted no time in promoting another of his British contenders to face either of the aforementioned fighters. Josh Kelly has put a four-fight winning streak together since signing with Sauerland’s Wasserman after a career lone defeat to David Avanesyan. Now campaigning at 154 pounds, the former Olympian finds himself in the mandatory position for Tim Tszyu’s WBO world title.
“I don’t want to sound like a bragging old dog,” Sauerland added, “but I’ve had enough world champions. I love doing fights that we will remember for years to come. World titles are lovely, but unfortunately they have quite an inflated currency. We are going to make him a world champion, all I said was that when you look at those big domestic names, you know, Eubank Jr, Kell Brook, Conor Benn, they are not going to be around forever.”
