CONOR BENN is rapidly establishing himself as a new attraction in British boxing. He stopped Samuel Vargas with unexpected speed on Saturday, an impressive finish, and he should remain active, with July being eyed for his next outing.
โThatโs the idea, to box him again in July. I want to keep him busy now,โ Tony Sims, his trainer, told Boxing News. โI want to get another fight in July and maybe another fight at the end of December and just keep him nice and busy now.
โThey more they fight, the better their experience.โ
Conor, the son of British boxing legend Nigel Benn, will headline once again. โThe numbers are so big that heโs doing. Behind the heavyweights, behind [Anthony] Joshua and Dillian Whyte, heโs doing the next big numbers on Sky. Heโll always headline his own shows now,โ Sims said. โAt the end of the day, when he talks people listen and his style is exciting. Weโve seen him going on the floor as a novice. Heโs got a little bit of vulnerability that his dad had but heโs also got power in both hands that his dad carried. People want to watch that.โ
โHeโs exciting and heโs a breath of fresh air for British boxing,โ Tony continued. โHeโs real when he talks, he shows raw emotion sometimes and people tune in to watch that. Thatโs what fightingโs about. It is raw. Fighting is raw and they want to see real people.โ
However in terms of his opposition, Sims is not looking to fast-track him. โI need him to gain experience. I got him a boxer who boxes off the backfoot last time, this time I got him a rugged fighter who comes forward, obviously it finished early,โ Tony said. โI thought weโd be in for a tough fight and I envisioned obviously Conor beating [Vargas] and I envisioned him maybe stopping him later on in the fight.
โHe takes a bit of stopping normally. He takes a shot. Heโs durable. He can bang a little bit, he showed against [Amir] Khan. I was envisioning quite a difficult fight early on and then Conor comes on to stop him. But he caught Vargas early and he finished the job there and then. It was a great finish as well.
โBut Iโm trying to put him in with different styles of fighting. [So] when he does reach them heights and is boxing the big names, heโs been in with mostly every style and he can cope whatever style comes at him.โ
But another of Simsโ boxers will be challenging for a British title next. Commonwealth champion Felix Cash boxes Denzel Bentley for the British middleweight title on April 24 on BT Sport. Cash chose to go for this fight rather than take a shot at the European title. โI left the option up to him but he did have two options,โ Sims said. โHe wanted to fight for the British title. Itโs a big thing for him, winning the Lonsdale belt.โ
โIt should be a good fight. Theyโre both unbeaten so it should be a good fight but Iโm expecting Felix to come through,โ he continued. โItโs a tough fight. Theyโre both unbeaten young prospects. When you look at Felixโs resume, heโs boxed all round the world with GB. He was on GB for quite a long time and boxed all the top amateurs.
โHeโs got a lot of experience like that that Bentley hasnโt really experienced.โ
The gym is on a tremendous run of form. Stablemate Ted Cheeseman has just won the British super-welterweight crown in another war, this time against James Metcalf. Sims doesnโt see Cheeseman fighting British rival Anthony Fowler next though. โIf you look at the last six fights [Cheeseman]โs been in, itโs horrendous really. He just fought everyone in the domestic division apart from Fowler,โ Sims said. โHeโs fought Metcalf, [Scott] Fitzgerald, [Kieron] Conway, [Sergio] Garcia, [Asinia] Byfield, Carson Jones, one after the other.
โFowler needs to fight someone on the resume that Tedโs fought. The opponents that Fowlerโs fought apart from Fitzgerald, who are they?
โCheeseman-Fowler is a big fight, itโs also another really difficult, hard fight. Itโs also another war [so] Iโve got to be smart around Tedโs career.โ