Nigel Benn has lifted the lid on his son Conor’s sparring sessions, revealing that Denzel Bentley, Bruno Surace and IBF super-middleweight champion William Scull were all in the firing line out in Majorca.
The 61-year-old Dark Destroyer, the two weight-world champion, has been by his son’s side throughout his training camp ahead of Saturday night’s grudge match with Chris Eubank Jr at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on The Ring’s Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves event. The cad will be
carried by DAZN PPV.
So he has seen first hand what has been going on during sparring, with a number of top names brought in to help prepare Benn Jr for this clash.
The 28-year-old has spent most of his career campaigning at welterweight but is jumping up two weight divisions for this 160lb tussle with Eubank Jr and his sparring partners have reflected that move up in size.
But while Benn has remained tight-lipped about what has gone on behind closed doors at his training camp in Majorca, his famous father had no problem talking up ‘The Destroyer’s’ sparring success in the gym.
“You know the saying, ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?’ Well, what happened in Majorca, I’m telling,” said Benn Sr at Thursday’s final press conference.
“First he started sparring with Denzel Bentley. He’s a super-middleweight but really at light heavyweight now and he had his hands full with Conor. Conor did 10 rounds easy.
“Then he was sparring the guy who knocked out Munguia, Bruno Surace, another light-heavy. Conor was bullying him around.
“Then to put the cherry on top he started sparring a guy called William Scull, an IBF champion, who is fighting Canelo a week after Conor.”
Benn even claimed that Scull, who takes on Canelo for all four super-middleweight belts in Riyadh on Saturday, May 3 ‘quit’ after eight rounds of a planned 10 with his son.
He said: “In the first four rounds, him and Conor were even-stevens and they were saying ‘perfecto!’ every time he hit Conor. Then in about round five, he said ‘no no no’ because Conor only has 40 seconds rest in between rounds. Then what he was doing in between the rounds, he was sitting on the ropes.
“Then in rounds five, six and seven he was starting to feel the pace. This was William Scull the IBF champion.
“Then round eight came and me and Tony [Sims] looked at each other and thought he just quit, he just stopped. He couldn’t take no more after eight rounds, we were meant to do 10.
“My little boy just damaged the IBF world champion and I am so confident this don’t go past four rounds. Nobody has seen him for the last two or three years, oh my gosh, you are in for a big big treat, mark my words.”