As long, convoluted and complex as the journey might have been, the destination was never in doubt. 

On Saturday at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Chris Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn meet in a match that has been more than two years in the making.

It has become a huge event, laced with multiple storylines and talking points, but at around 10 p.m. local time, in the cool night air of the glamorous North London stadium, everything will go quiet, a hush will fill around the crowd, Eubank and Benn will stare at one another across the ring and then the bell will sound.

Benn, 23-0 (14 KOs), from Ilford in Essex, England, is the underdog. He has less experience. He has not fought up at middleweight before (more on that later) and he has yet to fight a top opponent in their prime.

But he is fresher. He hasn’t had to strip off the weight. And he is showing the type of hunger and ambition that you would hope to see from a fighter on the rise.

Brighton, England’s Eubank is 34-3 (25 KOs) and has mixed at a higher level, is more experienced and the bigger man. But he has posted a video of his grueling weight cut, one that has looked so rough that it has resulted in some questioning whether the fight should take place. Despite the cut, Eubank missed the 160lbs weight limit by the slenderest margin and had to pay the penalty.

But it is fight day now, and there is a mixture of excitement and trepidation around the contest. As a fight, it delivers what those in the sport care for most – jeopardy, where the winner is not known or preordained before the first bell.

Because while the logic has pointed to the bigger man and the more experienced fighter being the favorite in the fight, the asterisks around how hard he found the weight cut gives one cause to believe that he might show up in a depleted state.

Benn took to social media to say Eubank was already getting his excuses ready.

Whatever, there is no love lost.

There was not any when their fathers twice battled some 30 years ago.

But neither fighter is coming in having fired on all cylinders in his previous fight.

Eubank, in January 2023, was caught out by a very good fighter in Liam Smith and stopped in four rounds by the rampaging Liverpool man. When they boxed again, six months later, a diminished version of Smith (he said he was injured going into the fight) lasted into the 10th round, but he was down twice and losing before it was stopped. And although activity has not been Smith’s friend, Eubank has boxed just once since, underwhelming against Kamil Szeremeta before stopping him last October.

Eubank is 35 now. He is a 37-fight veteran, still chasing a lucrative fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. But are his best days behind him? Was the first Smith bout a precursor of decay that was to come. Because while Eubank has boxed at a high level for a long time, having fought the likes of Billy Joe Saunders, Arthur Abraham, George Groves, James DeGale, Matvey Korobov and Dmitry Chudinov, he had lived a lifetime before that, moving out to Las Vegas where he became, as a teenager, a fixture in the gyms, doing rounds with the likes of Chad Dawson, Montell Griffin and Zab Judah. As a young pro, he sparred with luminaries such as David Haye, Groves, Carl Froch and Nathan Cleverly.

It has been quite a journey since Eubank turned pro in 2011, and he has spent the following years since trying to step out of such an emphatic and charismatic shadow.

“People probably looked at that and thought, ‘Well, who does he think he is?’” Eubank told me a few years ago of trying to impress in his early pro days. “‘Just because he’s got the second name Eubank, he’s doing all this stuff in the ring like that and I don’t like him.’ And then there’s other people that love that, because it’s different.”

But while the Eubank of today has plenty of experience, it also represents a solid amount of wear and tear.

Benn doesn’t have that, of course.

Will the cutting words in the buildup of Eubank’s outspoken estranged father, Chris Eubank Snr – a terrific fighter and former long-reigning world champion, who has called his son “a disgrace” – strip confidence and the resolve of his son, or will it inspire him to fight for his father’s approval? Or will Tina Turner’s iconic “Simply the Best” blast out for Eubank Snr to lead his son into battle?

Regardless, there might come a point when Eubank has to dig deep, as his dad did against the likes of Benn, Joe Calzaghe, Carl Thompson and countless others. And that is something Eubank Jnr said he was always prepared to do.

“If you’re doing it for any other reason but the love of the sport, you’re gonna get hurt and you’re not gonna make it,” he told me years ago. “Some people, especially early on in my career, were like, ‘Ah, he’s just doing it for the money. He’s gonna make a quick payday, have a couple of fights, make some money, go on Big Brother or something like that,’ and that’s fair enough. Because I could have easily done that. But if you’re doing it for those reasons – for those superficial reasons, for money or fame or whatever – you’re just never gonna make it, because there are gonna be so many times where you’re gonna be in positions where it’s so painful, so hard, so gritty, that if you were only in it for those reasons, you’d be like, ‘You know what, screw this. I’m just gonna find another way.’”

Eubank might have felt like that while melting off his final pounds yesterday. And the IBF hydration clause that allowed him to weigh only 170lbs this morning might have hurt just as much.

Neither of the fathers, Nigel or Chris Snr, had wanted their sons to box. They hoped their sacrifices meant their sons would not have to take the same gritty, hard and often painful path. But both sons doubled down, proving their passion to their fathers and to themselves.

Benn once told me how his amateur career had come and gone before he knew it.

“I just went in there and had a fight,” Benn said. “I just fought. I shouldn’t have fought. I shouldn’t have been a fighter. I wasn’t raised to fight. I don’t even know what happened, to be honest. It’s like a blur in my life, and I look back and I think, ‘How on Earth did I get here?’”

He might well have thought that yesterday, too.

Benn has always wanted his career to pay off; not just for himself and his family, but for Tony Sims, who has trained him from the start. Their bond is a strong one, to the extent that Benn told me years ago that he would be with Sims from the start to the finish of his career. And when I told Sims that, he was unsurprised because he knows the amount of time he spent smoothing off the rough edges at the start, repeating drill after drill. After Sims’ leading fighters had left the gym for the day, he would stay back with Benn and go through everything: pads, defensive moves, combinations.  

Of course, the Eubank name itself is associated with mind games and gamesmanship. One can be sure Eubank did not intentionally miss weight yesterday, coming in 0.05lbs over the 160lbs limit, with Benn making it with pounds to spare. It cost Eubank $500,000 of his purse, and prompted Benn to post a video of Cuba Gooding, from the famous “Jerry Maguire” scene, shouting, “Show me the money!”

But Eubank has been spending freely in recent times. Ahead of this contest, he used £50,000 of his own money to reimburse those scheduled to box on the undercard in 2022 when they were originally due to clash with money toward training expenses. Eubank has also tried to bet Eddie Hearn £1m on the outcome, and the British Boxing Board of Control slapped Eubank with a £100,000 fine for pushing an egg into Benn’s face at the first press conference.

But if the weight is horrendous for Eubank, there is every chance that a swarming, dynamic attacker like Benn could have success early. That might be his best chance. And although Benn’s father insisted his son is a 15-round fighter, Benn has sometimes looked one-dimensional the longer fights have gone on. Here, Plan A could be what Nigel did against Iran Barkley, which is to come out firing and not stop until the job is done. Barkley complained for years about Benn’s roughhouse tactics, but ultimately the record books show he was stopped in a round. 

Benn has labored in the two fights that came since the aborted first bout with Eubank, after those two failed tests for clomifene that he has always stringently pleaded his innocence over. If the Benn who failed to dazzle against Rodolfo Orozco in 2023 and Peter Dobson in 2024 shows up in Tottenham, he could be in trouble.

If Eubank, assuming he is exhausted at the weight, is not caught cold, it is not likely that he will get stronger as the fight goes on – certainly not, if the 28-year-old Benn is able to maintain a hot pace. But if Eubank is able to find a rhythm, hammer Benn with the jab consistently and pick away, he might see it through for a decision.

There will likely come a point when, through fatigue, pride and the primal urge to defend their surnames, that they are swinging for the fences and that it might come down to who has the stronger legs and the fresher chin, and that tips the scales toward Benn.

Of course, both of the above might be true at certain stages, but the prediction is that the size – particularly if he has time to replenish and come in far heavier – and experience of Eubank will prove too much for Benn to overcome. But it might be worth putting money on a rematch.

Anthony Yarde vs Lyndon Arthur III

Four years have gone by since Anthony Yarde and Lyndon Arthur put their hands on one another. It seemed then that Yarde’s impressive fourth-round win had consigned their rivalry to the history books, but they meet again tonight.

Yarde is more dynamic and more versatile, but Arthur’s fundamentals set him apart from a lot of his competitors – his jab in particular. 

It is well-known that Yarde was a shadow of himself the first time they fought. He had lost several family members in the pandemic and was not psychologically present, falling to a listless split decision. For Yarde, there was often a criticism that the fighters he faced on the way up were not tough enough to prepare him for what was to come. And when his shots arrived, they were against two of the best 175lbs fighters in recent years in Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbiev. They both proved to be a bridge too far, but Yarde pushed both hard, losing each time via stoppage yet winning fans through his style and grit in the process.

Yarde is 26-3 (24 KOs), and the 33-year-old Londoner has scored victories over Jorge Silva, Marko Nikolic and Ralfs Vilcans in his past three fights.

Arthur, 24-3 (16 KOs), is from Manchester, England, and also 33. He lost a decision to Dmitry Bivol in December 2023 and was given a tough fight by Liam Cameron in his most recent outing, taking a split verdict over 10 rounds in the summer.

Arthur will be hoping to scupper the constant speculation that Yarde will – at some stage – have an all-London fight with Joshua Buatsi, because Arthur will want to be back in those big fights.

Yarde looked flat against Vilcans, having dropped the visitor in the first round and settled for points in what served as a tick-over fight. But this occasion, this moment – in the fight before the main event on Saturday’s card – should spur Yarde on to a career-best performance and a victory inside the distance. Then he can stake his claim for another main event.

Liam Smith vs Aaron McKenna 

Liam Smith is 36. Aaron McKenna is 25 years of age. The story could be that a torch is set to be passed between battling middleweights, and that is what the optics look like. However, if Smith is close to being the Liam Smith of old rather than an old Liam Smith, then there is far more to this match than meets the eye.

It marks the most significant step up in the career of Ireland’s McKenna to date, and it is a big step at that. 

His most recent scheduled eight-rounder was early last year, when he stopped Mickey Ellison in six rounds, and he followed that in July with a 10th-round stoppage of Jeovanny Estela in Japan. There were two fights for McKenna in 2023 and two fights for him in 2024.

Smith had two bouts in 2022, and had his pair of contests with Eubank Jnr in 2023, but he hasn’t fought since that final bout in September 2023. He had been due to fight Josh Kelly last September, but he fell ill during fight week and was forced out.

Smith said this week that if he could create his perfect opponent, it would be someone like McKenna, who is a tall volume puncher. But McKenna has – for years – had a tough education in the gyms of Las Vegas and Los Angeles, sparring a who’s who of leading stars. 

But Smith – who has fought the likes of Canelo Alvarez and Jaime Munguia – is not a sparring partner. He wants one more significant run and he should be able to kick-start on the scorecards in a fight that McKenna believes will steal the show.

Chris Billam-Smith vs Brandon Glanton

The Tottenham Hotspur show on Saturday could kick off with fireworks as cruiserweight punchers Chris Billam-Smith and Brandon Glanton will look to inch closer to a world title fight by attempting to lay waste to one another.

They have nearly identical records, with former WBO titleholder Billam-Smith at 20-2 (13 KOs) and Glanton at 20-2 with 17 stoppages.

Billam-Smith, at 34, is a year older, and there has been bad blood this week, with Glanton citing a snubbed handshake with “The Gentleman” a couple of years ago as the source of his energy.

Glanton lost two fights back-to-back, to David Light and Soslan Asbarov, both contentiously in 2022 and 2023, but he has stopped his past three opponents, halting Carlos Fromenta Romero in three, Emil Markic in two and Aleksei Egorov in 11.

Billam-Smith is coming off a loss in a unification fight with WBA belt holder Gilberto Ramirez, and he suffered an early career points loss to Richard Riakporhe, which he subsequently reversed when he was a titlist and Riakporhe was his mandatory.

Billam-Smith is a heavy puncher, but the knock on him has been that he gets involved unnecessarily, and if he does that with a puncher like Glanton, he could be in trouble. Billam-Smith, as a father, is increasingly civilized, and it makes you wonder if the selfish fire he needed to achieve everything he has burns as hotly as it once did.

Glanton is a dangerous operator and, to win, Billam-Smith might need to come through some rocky moments, and even climb off the floor, to win a hard-fought battle.

Viddal Riley vs Cheavon Clarke

Much has been made about Viddal Riley’s success and fame away from boxing, and when he was paired with Isaac Chamberlain earlier in the year, that represented what many considered a professional baptism gauging how far he can go. Chamberlain, however, had to withdraw with an injury and Riley was promptly shifted on to Saturday’s card, where he has an equally stern test against former Olympian Cheavon Clarke.

Clarke, a southpaw, is 10-1 (7 KOs), and coming off his only loss, when he challenged Leonardo Mosquea in Monte Carlo in December for the European title. He rose off the canvas in the first round to lose a split decision, and the Jamaican-born contender – who lives in Kent in the UK – cannot afford another slip-up at age 34.

“I’ll use my skill,” said Clarke. “I’ve got pedigree.”

Riley is seven years younger and 12-0 (7 KOs). He had a two-round runout against Dan Garber in December and before that bagged 10-round victories over Nathan Quarless and Mikael Lawal, respectively. Riley contends that those English title fights show he is the real deal, but Clarke is a menace. He stopped Tommy McCarthy in four rounds last year and then knocked out Ellis Zorro in eight before defeating Efetobor Apochi in the US last August. So activity and rust won’t be a problem. 

Riley – who fought internationally as an amateur and who holds a win in that code over Billam-Smith – might try to outbox Clarke and use his range, but one can see Clarke closing the distance within 12 rounds and closing the show.

Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.