Conor Benn has cranked up the mind games ahead of Saturday night’s grudge match with Chris Eubank Jr by inviting another of the 35-year-old’s bitter rivals to supervise his hands being wrapped.

Years before Eubank Jr and Benn ever even thought about fighting each other, the Brighton man had a long-running feud with Billy Joe Saunders.

It is 11 years in November since the pair clashed on a tempestuous night at the ExCel Arena, London with Saunders winning via split decision to hand Eubank the first defeat of his career.

The Hatfield southpaw went on to win world titles at both middleweight and super-middleweight but has not boxed since he was stopped by Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in the eighth round of their 2021 168lb unification fight at the AT&T Stadium, Texas.

Saunders, now 30-1 (14), is currently plotting his own return to the ring but, during an exclusive interview with The Ring, revealed that he may be in attendance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday night as an official part of Team Benn.

Each fighter is allowed to nominate a person to enter their opponent’s changing rooms pre-fight to supervise the hand wrapping process to ensure nothing outside of the rules takes place. Now Saunders says Benn has asked him to take on that responsibility for him.

He said: “Conor Benn has actually asked me to come and watch Eubank’s hands get wrapped up. I’m going to have a call with him later to discuss it. He wants me to go in there and make sure there’s no cheating with the hand wraps. The one person Eubank will not want to see on the night is me.

“I think it’s going to be a good fight, but I want to see Conor Benn knock him out cold. Regardless of the result, I’ve always got the win over him so it doesn’t really matter to me. I would like to see Conor Benn knock him out cold and if I can help him do so then I will.

“Strangely enough I was actually in the same hotel as him in London the other week. I hollered at him through a window and he made his driver drive off. There was no malice, I was just going to give him a bit of stick but he’s probably seen me and thought ‘I’m making weight, I could do without this today’.

“Trouble is, he might have to see me on fight night now instead.”

Eubank, who is the naturally bigger man and a veteran of more fights than the 28-yer-old, has been made the favourite with oddsmakers for the headliner at the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves event but Saunders is adamant the size difference will be no problem for Benn due to his success in sparring.

He added: “I know first hand that Conor Benn has been looking very explosive in sparring. I’m not going to mention any names but I know he’s knocked a couple of them out clean, cold in sparring. I’ve also seen a video of him dropping a world-class British super-middleweight in sparring.

“Clearly Benn has had a great camp and is in great shape. So if Eubank thinks he’s going to go in there and use the bully tactics, something tells me Conor Benn is going to knock him out. Something tells me he’s going to get caught and Benn will take him out. If Liam Smith can knock him out, then Conor Benn definitely can. Something tells me he’s going to knock Eubank out.

“Size is a massive factor in this fight but you have to let the body grow. Since we boxed as beginners in 2014, he has been around this weight. That’s 11-12 years. Is that going to catch up with him now?”

“He’s 35 now and the best belt he’s ever won is a British title. He’s British-European level at best. He will never be a world champion and he will never, as long as he has got a hole in his arse, whether I was finished or not, beat me in a boxing match. My brain alone is too good for him.”

The fight will stream live on DAZN PPV.