Welterweight Conor Benn faces the first huge step up in his career tonight against experienced Colombian Samuel Vargas in a test which will show whether the son of the British boxing legend Nigel Benn is approaching his mark in the big leagues. Promoter Eddie Hearn has earmarked this headliner as Benn’s “test of a box office star” and “the opportunity to show that he is one of the most marketable young fighters in Britain”.
But Benn, still just a fledgling professional in many ways, insists he is up to the task. And some. In Vargas, Benn faces a 37-fight veteran who has been in the ring with Amir Khan, Errol Spence, Luis Collazo, Danny Garcia, all major names in the talent-rich 147lb weight class, and a fighter who has pledged this week to “take Benn to the wire”.
“He’s been in with the best fighters of our generation. He’s going to bring one hell of a fight but I believe I’ve got all the tools to put on a destructive performance, which I believe I can do,” explained Benn, unbeaten in seventeen fights, with eleven knockouts. “As Eddie said, I’m a contender and I’m constantly proving that.” “Touch wood, with no injuries, I will get out three, four times this year and potentially get into a world title eliminator at the end of the year, or a fight for the European title. I want Amir Khan, Kell Brook, too, the sort of fights I believe the public wants to see.” Ambition, indeed, for the young fighter who became a father three months ago. Fatherhood, he says, “is a blessing, such a blessing. I’m a very content man.” But has it given him more to fight for or even softened him ?“It’s done neither. It’s not softened me and it’s not given me more motivation. I was already motivated for myself first, to be number one first. I didn’t come to England for my dream to be a dad, I came here to be world champion. It doesn’t add to the ambition because whatever I’d chosen to do anyway – even if it wasn’t boxing – my son would have been well looked after because whatever I’d done I would have been successful. It don’t make no difference, it’s just a blessing to come home to my son. There’s a lot of comfort there.” But the fighting family genes run deep. “My dad never wanted me to fight. I don’t feel I had to take this path whatsoever. It’s definitely not the reason I do it, no chance. I love to fight and I don’t let no one take that away from me. I would now hate my son to be a fighter.”
Benn must show poise and presence tonight in his first 12-round contest, and pressure Vargas without extending himself too much in the early rounds. Both fighters are known for wanting to throw down, but if Benn can temper his natural tendencies to get into a brawl, it could result in a great performance. Anything less than that, and it could be a tough learning fight. Vargas is ambitious, and dangerous, in a fight that could go either way. On the undercard, Shannon Courtenay, of Watford meets Australian Ebanie Bridges for the vacant women’s WBA bantamweight title, in what has been an irksome fight week between the two fighters, and unbeaten Savannah Marshall, from Hartlepool, defends her women’s WBO middleweight crown against late replacement Maria Lindberg of Sweden.