Conor has to keep his cool with heat on

IT’S a tough beat being Conor Benn.

Having a famous father is a doubleedged sword. It creates a lot of interest but the comparisons weigh heavily.

It was the same with Chris Eubank Jnr, who is not as good as his dad but still a hell of a fighter.

Benn (above, with father Nigel) looks like he has the temperament to cope and, significantly, is doing all the right things in the ring. Just as he did with Sebastian Formella last November, he is taking a step up against Samuel Vargas.

Vargas is a seasoned pro who has been in with the likes of Errol Spence, Danny Garcia, Amir Khan and Luis Collazo.

He has a good chin, decent power and can take most good guys the distance. A stoppage win would therefore be impressive.

Benn does not like to hang about but, as his father did, is learning to let out his power sensibly.

In the early part of his career Nigel (below) got into trouble because of the way he fought. Michael Watson exposed him.

Once he learned to control the power output and stopped being gung-ho in the first three rounds, he lessened the risk of burn-out. He used the jab more and kept the big stuff in reserve.

As a novice Conor would also come out flailing and looked wide open. Working under Tony Simms has contained that. I don’t know that he will ever reach the heights of his father but he is definitely improving.

The division is white hot. Terence Crawford and Spence are the best of the best so you can see the difficulty he faces down the line. For him it’s about learning the trade. There is talk of fighting Khan, who seems desperate to return to the ring for another last hurrah.

Kell Brook is another who they could be looking at. The duel between the coming man and the ageing, former champ is one of the great tensions in boxing.

Simms deserves a lot of credit for recent improvements. Together they have tamed the wilder stuff while still being explosive.

This could turn into a hard night. If Vargas gets into the fight he is hard to shift. But if Benn is the prospect we think he is it could end quickly. Above all Benn has to show he can manage the expectation as well as his opponent.

If he does that we will know he is moving in the right direction.