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Eubank Jr vs Benn 2 - British sporting legend who watched boxing with Gazza and partied with Lennox Lewis makes big fight prediction
Sporting great Martin Offiah has delivered his prediction for Saturday’s blockbuster rematch between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn .
The legendary former winger scored 501 career tries during an amazing rugby career and is universally regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
The 59-year-old is also a huge boxing fan and has followed the sport closely since Chris Eubank Sr and Nigel Benn struck up a classic rivalry in the early 1990s.
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Eubank won the first fight by knockout in 1990 before a draw in the rematch three years later at Old Trafford.
Much like Eubank and Benn, Offiah became a household name and a regular on the boxing scene as the nation was gripped by their bitter feud.
Speaking exclusively to DAZN News ahead of tomorrow’s rematch at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Offiah said: “Back in the Nineties I got to know Nigel and Chris through Ambrose Mendy, who was Nigel’s manager at the time.
“Ellery Hanley and I developed a relationship with Ambrose and he used to invite us to all the boxing, which is how I also got to know Frank Warren.
“I ended up playing for Frank after he bought Bedford Blues rugby club in the late Nineties, so I became quite immersed in the whole boxing scene.
“I used to watch Naz (Prince Naseen Hamed) fights and also knocked about with Lennox Lewis quite a lot. I used to take him out partying!”
Offiah has special memories of the original Eubank-Benn rivalry, having attended their fights in 1990 and 1993 as well as the first scrap between their sons earlier this year.
The ex-Widnes, Wigana and Great Britain star remembered: “I went to the first Eubank-Benn fight at the NEC in Birmingham with Ellery Hanley and Shaun Edwards.
“It was a star-studded affair, Gazza (Paul Gascoigne) was there, the lead singer of Aswad and a few big-name actors at the time.
“The rivalry was so big and you were either Benn or Eubank because it gripped the whole nation.”
And so now, over three decades on, it is time for the next generation of the Eubank and Benn families to take centre stage.
Offiah said: “I’ve got love for the Eubanks because they’re great characters but I want Conor to win on Saturday night because I always supported Nigel.
“It’s going to be tough for Benn to win and if I was a betting man I would probably put my money on Eubank.
“But it’s going to be another great fight and I’m a big fan of them both.”
Offiah’s sons Tyler and Phoenix are making their way in professional sport.
Tyler, 19, is a promising winger for reigning Prem Rugby champions Bath and 16-year-old Phoenix is scoring goals for fun in the Tottenham Hotspur youth ranks.
Martin Offiah
Offiah added: “I scored 501 tries and am immortalised in a bronze statue outside Wembley Stadium, but now it’s my sons’ turn to make their own sporting name.
“And it’s the same with Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn.
“The Eubank-Benn rivalry is a captivating story and you could see that during the face-off at Thursday’s press conference.
“That’s what sport is about – creating narratives, stories and reality TV shows – and the WWE and UFC have done it well.
“It’s about getting people emotionally invested and it all goes back to like when you were at school.
“If you saw two kids fighting from another school who you didn’t know then it wasn’t exciting.
“But if you saw your best mate fighting against someone you didn’t like, then you had to be there.
“To get people emotionally invested in it then you have to tell a story and the Eubank-Benn rivalry is an amazing narrative which sucks people in and goes back over 30 years.”
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