Conor Benn took a two-round thrashing from Ryan, yet his management still secured a lucrative deal for his next fight. Keith Connolly revealed Benn has a guaranteed purse for a return bout, a sum more than 100% higher than Eddie Hearn’s original offer for a Rolly Romero clash.
Connolly did not reveal either figure. His comparison still raises an awkward question for Zuffa: after paying Benn to face Garcia, what kind of fight justifies paying him substantially again?
“In the deal that we made for Conor, we have a substantial comeback number,” Connolly told talkSPORT. He said the payment was negotiated to give Benn a comeback fight in which he can get a win. Connolly also said Zuffa cannot drop Benn under the contract because of the Garcia defeat.
Connolly did his job for Benn. Give him an easy opponent, and he probably gets the win, but who’s going to be impressed after Ryan took him out in two rounds? Put him in with someone who can punch, and Zuffa risks paying a big guarantee to watch Benn lose again.
Benn can still sell a fight in Britain. He’s Nigel Benn’s son, he has a following, and there’s another Chris Eubank Jr. fight to make. But Ryan exposed the part of the sales pitch that said Benn belonged with the best welterweights. He’d looked poor in several fights since coming back; getting stopped in two rounds in his first world title shot made that much harder to sell his fights.
Connolly expects Benn to fight Chris Eubank Jr. a third time, and that’s Zuffa’s best chance of making money on his return. British fans know the family rivalry, even after Ryan stopped Benn in two rounds. Beating an easy opponent first might give Benn a win, but it won’t erase what happened against Garcia. Connolly made sure Benn gets paid either way.
Zuffa bought a circus act, and now they are stuck footing the bill for the cleanup. Dana White thought he was purchasing an elite British star with crossover appeal. Instead, Ryan took two rounds to turn Benn into an international laughingstock.
Now Zuffa holds a contract guaranteeing Benn millions for a return date, with nowhere left to hide him. They cannot put him in with an actual contender at 160 or 168 because any legitimate puncher will put him into retirement. They cannot put him on pay-per-view against an imported tomato can because fans will not pay fifty dollars to watch an unranked punching bag fall down in ninety seconds. That leaves Chris Eubank Jr. as the only escape route.
The promotional idea for a third fight between these privileged sons of famous British legends has completely changed. Nobody with working eyes believes this is a meeting of championship contenders. The athletic intrigue disappeared the moment Ryan landed his right hand, and Benn hit the deck.
The only angle left to sell is morbid curiosity. British boxing fans will tune in for one simple reason: to watch Benn get knocked out again. The novelty of the family rivalry is gone. It has turned into a pure demolition watch party. Eubank has every physical advantage, and he knows Benn cannot take a punch from someone with genuine power. If Zuffa pulls the trigger on the trilogy, they are selling tickets to an execution.
Benn-Eubank Jr. III can do strong business in the UK, but it will not generate the kind of money Zuffa needs to break even on the massive guarantees they handed out.
The British domestic market operates on nostalgia. UK ticket buyers will pack a stadium like Tottenham Hotspur again simply because of the family names. The problem is the pay-per-view numbers and international interest. Benn getting humiliated by Ryan inside two rounds destroyed any illusion that he is an elite global star. Overseas buyers in the United States will not pay sixty or seventy dollars for a domestic grudge match between an exposed welterweight and an aging middleweight.
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