BENN, 55, SETS THE DATE FOR HIS RING RETURN
NIGEL BENN will make his astonishing return to the boxing ring in November in Birmingham — 23 years after his last fight.
The 55-year-old announced via social media on Friday that he was making his comeback and
Sportsmail understands it will take place on November 23 at the 16,000- capacity Resort World Arena.
Mystery still surrounds his opponent, though a source close to the fight indicated it is likely to be a 40-year- old former WBC world champion, which points towards Sakio Bika, who was a super-middleweight champion between 2013 and 2014 and fought for the light-heavyweight crown as recently as 2015.
The Cameroonian-Australian has been inactive since October 2017. Benn, who will fight what is being described as a one- off 12-rounder at light- heavyweight, is expected to land in Britain this week travelling from his home in Australia. A press conference has been pencilled in for next week.
The bout is sure to generate reasonable controversy
and concern due to Benn’s age, with the former middleweight and super- middleweight world champion not having fought since two defeats against Steve Collins in 1996. However, he has dipped in and out of talks across the past seven years with his great rival Chris Eubank about a trilogy fight and has stayed in excellent shape. He held informal discussions recently with the British Boxing Board of Control, but with the prospects of being granted a licence extremely slim, Sportsmail understands his forthcoming bout will be sanctioned by the British and Irish Boxing Authority, which is not recognised by the BBBoC. Eubank was Benn’s preferred opponent, but after years of talks amounted to nothing, discussions have been held with both Collins, the former twoweight world champion, and faded ring great Roy Jones Jr.
It is understood 50-year- old Jones Jr, who won world titles from middleweight to heavyweight and last fought in 2018, was offered £500,000. He could still be in the frame.
While people close to Benn (left) maintain there will be no followup to this bout, there will always interest in the prospect of a third fight with Eubank, against whom Benn lost and drew in 1990 and 1993 respectively.
Detailing the difficulty in negotiating a third fight in the past seven years, Benn told
Sportsmail in 2015: ‘ We had backers from Dubai, Manchester, Ireland — we would make £5m to £ 10m each, everything split evenly. Not one word of a lie.
‘We spent three bloody years talking. But Chris is impossible.’
Assuming there are no late hitches in his plans, Benn — whose son Conor is 15-0 as a professional and holds the WBA continental welterweight title — will commence an eight-week training camp this month.