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His Saturday night appearance at his son’s wrestling match with Conor Benn was a scene appropriate for a soap opera plot twist.

In a sport with high stakes, the reconciliation may have given his son, Chris Eubank Jr., who previously claimed he had not spoken to his father in years, an advantage over Conor Benn in a historical and dramatistic rivalry.

The typically composed Eubank sank after 12 exhausting back-and-forth matches at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when his name was announced as the winner.

As he battled the disappointment, Benn burst out in tears and flashed a stone-faced expression.

Anyone who has even sparingly followed boxing these past two years will understand how desperately both men wanted the victory.

The conflict between their personalities and a bloodline feud, which their fathers’ iconic duel in the 1990s, alluded to.

After Benn failed a drug test, which resulted in the cancellation of their scheduled 2022 fight, the rivalry was blasted to heights higher than Katy Perry’s recent brief space jaunt.

And it ended with both of their legendary fathers holding them in arms in a fitting manner.

Benn struck at the heart of a fight that captivated a nation while taking his defeat with humility.

Benn said, “A relationship with your father is special; I’d choose to pursue it over boxing one day.”

That’s worth its weight in gold, according to Chris and his father, if this fight brought them together.

It’s all too easy to rave about the spectacle and to anticipate it at the moment.

Is a rematch, however, the best move for British boxing and fighters?

Before a contentious draw three years later, Eubank Sr defeated Nigel Benn in the 1990 election. However, their sons were so far away from home that they never ought to have exchanged a ring.

While former world title challenger Eubank had a proven pro up at middleweight and super-middleweight, Benn had spent the majority of his career at welterweight.

However, because the match-up was so popular, a well-designed setting was created to make the match-up work. For more information, see Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson for further details. This is not a common situation in boxing.

Eubank was unable to add more than 10 pounds on fight night due to a rehydration clause.

Benn’s explosive style was suited to his use of firmer horsehair gloves rather than foam padding, and an 18-foot ring was used instead of the standard 20-foot ring.

Eubank struggled to reach the 11st 6lb weight limit at the beginning of his career.

The video of him trying to lose any body fat from his sweatsuit made the sport cry out in pain and discomfort.

Hearn, a promoter, believes that too much was done with Eubank’s weight reduction.

At the post-fight press conference, Hearn said, “He has made it the last five but he just messed up.”

No one has ever asked him, “Do you think it’s dangerous for Benn to be moving up two divisions and fighting someone the size of Eubank?” he said.

Benn, who denies intentional doping and was given a fight-account clearance by an anti-doping panel, may never win over the critics who believe the failed tests still have unanswered questions.

However, some fans of boxing, not necessarily purists, are forgiving, especially when everything is on the line. Benn left north London, presumably to the detriment of the jeers who eventually turned into supporters, after converting a few haters into supporters.

He almost caused the upset. He asserts that if he had been more active, he could have defeated Eubank in some respects. Over the past two and a half years, Benn has missed out on important lessons and fights.

Where does he then proceed?

He claims that because I wasn’t outclassed or hurt in there, “if it was as close as people are saying it is, then that’s what’s painful.”

Eubank has had a positive impact on the build-up, in some way.

His ‘bad guy’ persona has been softened by his emotional vulnerability when he revealed his troubled relationship with his father and his brother’s passing in 2021.

Eubank has also won over some of his fellow peers. He made up for the fighters who were supposed to appear on Benn’s 2022 bout but were later called in by himself.

It was a wise PR move from Eubank, which also highlighted the disparity between main eventers and those who don’t make life-changing money.

Eubank had to perform on the night for all of his good deeds. He did enough to succeed, despite what we had anticipated.

In 2026, he has been linked to a fight with Mexican legend Saul ‘Canelo ‘ Alvarez. Should he choose, it will be simpler to achieve a world title.

We must remember how and why we arrived, regardless of which direction Eubank and Benn choose to travel in.

There would be no 65, 000 fans at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium without the truck-car-taped, monocle-wearing, truck-driving Dark Destroyer Nigel Benn.

At UFC Fight Night in Kansas City, Missouri, Ian Machado Garry triumphed over Carlos Prates in a late-second blitz.

Ireland’s Machado Garry was able to hold on to the final bell in a tense conclusion after being in control for the majority of the fight after suffering some ground shots from the Brazilian.

After being defeated by Shavkat Rakhmonov in December, Machado Garry won, and Prates suffered his first UFC defeat.

“I was conscious in every moment even though I wasn’t hurt enough to not know where I was.” I have nothing but respect for that man because I am aware of how dangerous that man is.

“That guy strikes like a truck,” he says. Although he has been crying, I promised to outclass him and I think I succeeded in doing so.

The 27-year-old took the Prates fight on short notice at the start of the month, just like he did against Rakhmonov.

Machado Garry wanted to recover from his first defeat in his nine-fight UFC career, and he did just that, outclassing the 31-year-old over five rounds.

Machado Garry opened up a cut below his left eye with a powerful punch to the grounded Brazilian after a tentative opening few minutes.

As he outshot Prates and took control in the second round, the Irishman started to make use of his range and began to land punches successfully.

In the third, Prates was struggling to stifle Machado Garry’s movement and land any memorable shots due to a blitz of uppercuts.

However, as the fight approached its final stages, Prates burst forth and pressured Machado Garry to find a place for a large left and flying knee.

With only a few minutes left, Prates turned around Machado Garry’s takedown before delivering some powerful shots to the ground.

The T-Mobile Center audience erupted in yelled out for a winner, but Machado Garry held on until the end to claim the victory on the judges’ scorecards.

Machado Garry revealed in a post-fight interview that he is the backup fighter for the title fight between Jack Della Maddalena and Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 on May 10.

Agonising, embarrassing and, ultimately, inevitable.

More than just one disappointing season, Cardiff City’s relegation has been on the cards for a long time.

And the results have been disappointing.

No team has won fewer games in the Championship, and having gone through three managers during this campaign – making it eight in the past four years – the Bluebirds will be playing in the third tier next season, for the first time since 2003.

Many people will wonder why Cardiff is in such a mess when they have been promoted to the Premier League twice in the last 12 years and still have a wage bill that is higher than two-thirds of its Championship peers.

The unavoidable truth is that this club’s demise is not an accident; rather, it is the shocking outcome of a long-term trend.

“It’s been an inevitability staring us in the face. It’s death by a thousand cuts – I’ve felt it’s been coming for years,” former Cardiff striker Nathan Blake told Wales’ BBC Sport.

Instead of just focusing on the team or manager, there is a lot of responsibility that needs to be shared by many people. You do have to look at those above and say ‘ maybe you’ve run your course’. They must have abandoned their strategy, in my opinion, quite a while ago.

Cardiff’s first season without a manager since 2019 had actually started this season with a reasonable optimism.

Erol Bulut led the Bluebirds to a respectable 12th-place finish after several relegation fights.

The hope was that they could build on that foundation but, instead, Cardiff made the worst start to a season in their history and Bulut was sacked after picking up just one point from their opening six games in the Championship.

Although his replacement Omer Riza oversaw a start-up, it wasn’t until December, in the midst of a nine-game winless run, that he was chosen to lead Bulut’s place until the end of the season.

Under Vincent Tan’s 15 years in charge of the club, Cardiff have had 16 different managers. Managerial instability is not new.

But even by their standards, the protracted appointment of Riza drew sharp criticism from fans, with one supporters ‘ group writing an open letter raising” serious concerns “about the state of the club.

Given that Riza’s only prior EFL managerial experience was a brief spell in which he helped Leyton Orient be relegated to the National League in 2017, there were significant doubts about his suitability for the position.

Jason Perry, a former Cardiff captain, believes that the club’s “chaose” at the board level and the club’s toxic atmosphere had limited their options, while relegation rivals were appointing experienced Championship operators Gary Rowett and Mark Robins to help them stay safe.

“They’ve not sleepwalked into this situation, they’ve run into it. It’s an incredibly badly run club,” Perry tells Wales’ BBC Sport.

Many supporters have followed this club for a while, but some have since said they are never going to return.

“They are supporters who saw more bad days than good days but they felt part of something, that the club represented them – but they don’t feel that now.

The Tan era’s obsession with toxicology has been reflected in fan protests and unrest at games.

Deep divisions have not fully healed for some even a decade after Tan’s decision to switch Cardiff from their traditional blue to red was reversed in 2012.

More recently, supporters have voiced their anger with two large demonstrations this season against the owner, chairman Mehmet Dalman and chief executive Ken Choo.

Many people believe that Cardiff’s constant sway from one crisis to the next as a result of the club’s lack of football expertise, which detracts from its long-term strategy or plan.

The board hasn’t done anything since they first stepped through the door, according to Blake, “and they don’t know what they’re doing.”

” Things need to change. Who knows whether they will or not, but I’m not sure where this ends.

This city and these fans deserve more, they say. To have a billionaire owner and still be in the position we’re in… there needs to be a plan. The board needs to be more effective. Nothing changes until things change at the top, in my opinion.

That was what fans were demanding at a protest before the draw against Oxford United on Easter Monday.

“We’ve been fighting a relegation battle for four years and we’ve had enough of it. The owner just doesn’t want to know,” Chris, one of the leaders of the protest holding a banner that read ‘Tan Out’, told Wales’ BBC Sport.

“He hasn’t been to a game for years. Tan is no longer our strength. It can’t get any worse for us, even though we’re not sure who would take his place.

Therein lies the issue for those who want Tan gone: Cardiff are utterly dependent on their owner and there are currently no feasible alternatives.

In its most recent accounts for the 2023-2014 season, the club reported pre-tax losses of £11.6 million, which further supports Tan’s position.

The Malaysian businessman’s total debt, which is estimated to be £68 million, has increased by adding an additional £11.83 million in loans.

The club said the loans will be written off or converted to equity, while interest is also being waived. Tan also has written commitments to continue supporting him in writing.

The total of £40.33 million has also been increased by an additional £11 million on loans from directors and other connected parties.

Dalman accounts for a large amount of that £40.3m so, although fans may call for the chairman and board to be sacked, it is not a case of simply dismissing a man so heavily invested in the club.

They won’t be moving until Tan and Dalman can sell Cardiff to a buyer who will match their asking price. The club can’t continue without Tan, in any way, for now.

Cardiff will remain a club that is divided as long as Tan stays and the supporters do not make the desired change.

There have been times when old wounds appear to have healed. Tan was carried on some supporters’ shoulders as they poured onto the pitch at Cardiff City Stadium on the day the Bluebirds were promoted to the Premier League in 2018.

The relationship is beyond repair, according to many others.

“The situation looks hopeless for us”, says Gwenllian Evans, who follows the team home and away.

“I believe that many people still hold Tan and the board accountable for their actions. Tan’s apparent lack of interest in the club appears disappointing.

As well as corroding the club’s very soul, that division between its hierarchy and fanbase can affect matters on the field.

When asked if he thought the club was united in its fight against relegation during his time there, Riza responded with “no I don’t,” before adding: “I think the expectations are so high at this club.”

The Premier League has a club that has done well, and the fans want to do well, they say.

“You already know the divides. I don’t believe we will ever get better until that all comes together and there is acceptance of what it is and how we can move forward together.

A few days after that interview, Riza was fired, a decision that came too late to alter the start of Cardiff’s season.

Dalman, Choo and other board members are believed to have wanted him gone during the March international window, some thought they should have pulled the trigger back in January.

Neil Warnock had been pounced on a dramatic return to the club he had saved from Championship relegation and that he had replaced with the Premier League, but Tan chose to stay at Riza, which turned out to be very detrimental.

Attendances will likely decline as a result of Cardiff’s transition to League One, which will cost the organization millions of pounds in lost revenue from television coverage, sponsorship, and prize money.

There is no guarantee of a swift return to the Championship either. Cardiff’s return to this level after being last demoted to the third tier in 1985 took 18 years.

Six of the 29 Premier League teams that were relegated to League One have never returned to the Championship.