There is no doubt about it, both Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn earned themselves a ton of respect for going through what they went through on Saturday night in London. The fight, dismissed by plenty as a hype job, a fight that was only going to make money because of the two surnames of the fighters, turned out to be a classic. Brutal, utterly entertaining, to the extent that it was impossible to take one’s eyes off the action for even a second, the 36 minutes of warfare won by Eubank Jr elevated both men.
Now, with the praise for the fight continuing to come in, and this in the US as well as in the UK, and farther afield still, there is plenty of talk about where both British warriors go next.
Teddy Atlas, who spoke about the Eubank-Benn fight on his brilliant podcast, ‘The Fight,’ also fielded questions from fans who called in. One question Atlas was asked was, after his gutsy, respect-earning showing against Benn, is Eubank now a viable challenger for Canelo Alvarez?
For some time now, in fact over the years, Eubank has called out Canelo (along with Gennady Golovkin, this fight perhaps close, but not going ahead for whoever’s reason it is you are willing to accept; Kell Brook instead facing GGG back in September of 2016) – yet the fight never really came anywhere near being a done deal. Now, Atlas is one of the experts who says, yeah, this fight is a real possibility.
Atlas said that the fight could even happen at Wembley in London. If “someone is willing to bring Canelo over there” to the UK.
“Yeah, if somebody wants to bring Canelo, especially over there [to the UK], that would be a huge fight. That would probably would be able to be taken to Wembley Stadium,” Teddy said. “So, they both [Eubank and Benn] both helped themselves in many, many ways [with their respective performances on Saturday].”
Interesting stuff. Canelo, as we know, has William Scull to take care of next, this Saturday in Riyadh, and then he will go into that fascinating, for some, clash with fellow pound-for-pounder Terence Crawford. But could Canelo then, if he’s victorious in both fights, take a trip to London for the next fight in his four-fight deal with Riyadh Season and Turki Alalshikh?
Maybe.
For British boxing, this would of course be a great thing, and a huge, huge event. Canelo remains the face of boxing, and if he can stop Scull and then Crawford, his popularity, already enormous, would only rise, as would his perceived greatness. And what else would there be left for Canelo afterwards? Sure, Canelo has said he would be interested in a rematch with Dmitry Bivol, up, of course, at light heavyweight. But might Alalshikh, who enjoys putting big fights on in UK stadiums, manage to persuade Canelo to fight Eubank Jr at Wembley next year sometime?
Again, maybe.
And, as tough as he showed he really is against Benn – this perhaps for the first time in his hot-and-cold career – Eubank would have to be given a shot against a 36-year-old Canelo. No, nobody here is saying Eubank, who has, of course, never been stopped, would be anything like the favourite to topple Canelo, but would Canelo have his hands full with the version of Eubank who was so darned tough and determined against Benn? Yeah, he would.
And Eubank, up at 168, would be even stronger physically. Who knows, maybe Eubank will get his dream fight sometime in 2026, with Canelo giving it to him.
Canelo Vs. Eubank at Wembley next year: real or not?