Eddie Hearn thinks that Conor Benn should look back through his father’s highlight reel when he and his team sit down to devise their plan for beating Chris Eubank Jr.

Benn, 23-0 (14 KOs), and Eubank Jr, 34-3 (25 KOs), meet in a delayed middleweight grudge match, as part of Ring's 'Fatal Fury: City of The Wolves' event at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 26th. DAZN will stream the event globally.

“We want to win this fight inside six rounds and I'll tell you something now, Nigel Benn versus Iran Barkley. That’s the fight,” Hearn told The Ring.

In 1990, Benn declared war on the hard hitting, aggressive New Yorker and Barkley instinctively returned fire. Benn was hurt himself during two minutes and 57 seconds of absolute mayhem but also dropped Barkley three times to successfully retain his WBO middleweight title.

35 years on, Hearn is of the opinion that employing a similar approach could also pay rich dividends for Benn who has spent the vast majority of his career fighting at welterweight.

Anticipation and hostility will have reached fever pitch by the time Benn and Eubank Jr walk to the ring in front of 70,000 people on April 26th but if Benn does follow the all or nothing plan of attack his father employed against Barkley, the roof could come off the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

“I'm not saying it'll be over in the first round but from the first bell, that is what Conor will do,” Hearn said. “He will come out and he will let the kitchen sink fly at Eubank. Not two, three rounds of feeling out from the first bell.

“Eubank’s a tough kid. He'll stand his ground. He’s got pride. He won't run and he'll have it with him, like Barkley did and, in my opinion, Conor will knock him out.”

Eubank Jr has boxed hard hitting super middleweight world champions like George Groves and Arthur Abraham and emerged unscathed whilst International Boxing Hall of Famer, Carl Froch, praised his toughness after sharing the ring with him during sparring.

Hearn is certain that - at 35 years old - that version of Eubank Jr is gone forever.

In January 2023 he was stopped for the first time in his career when Liam Smith got to him in four rounds and although he got revenge over the Liverpudlian eight months later, Hearn’s belief that Benn will be too fast and ferocious was bolstered further by Eubank Jr’s performance during his win over Kamil Szeremeta last October.

“Speed, precision, accuracy,” Hearn said.

“And also, I know we can't lean on the fact that ‘Liam Smith stopped him so anyone can’ - Liam's a good fighter - but the reality is, Eubank used to have a granite chin. He ain't got one anymore.

“He hasn't. I thought he got shook, not shook, but he felt some shots off the Polish guy [Szeremeta].”