Promoter Eddie Hearn isn’t convinced that middleweight Chris Eubank Jr. has a lot of appealing options remaining at this point in his career.

For that reason, the head of Matchroom Boxing is confident that Eubank will eventually come around to a fight with embattled welterweight Conor Benn.

The British countrymen were in lengthy talks to fight each other on Feb. 3 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, but they failed to consummate a deal last month.

Hearn, who promotes Benn, pinned the blame for the snake-bitten matchup on Eubank, saying the Brighton native was unrealistic with his financial demands.

Of course, Eubank had already once agreed to take on Benn in October of 2022, but their matchup was cancelled after it was revealed, three days out from the night of the fight, that Benn had tested positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug clomifene. It was subsequently revealed that Benn had failed another drug test for the same substance earlier that year.

Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) is now set to fight on Feb. 3, anyway, but in Las Vegas, against New York’s Peter Dobson (16-0, 9 KOs)at The Cosmopolitan.

“He, in my opinion, was wrong to not take the offers that were on the table,” Hearn said of Eubank in a recent interview with iFL TV. “But I guess we were messed around because he didn’t want to take them. It wasn’t like he accepted and then didn’t sign the contract. We just never agreed [on] terms for the fight. I just feel like he should have.

“Now he just has to wait for Conor Benn. He ain’t gonna fight anybody else. He’s not going to fight the middleweight world champion for a quarter of the money that he was fighting Conor Benn for.”

“Already the initial offer (during revisited talks) was a lot more than what he was making for the first fight (in October of 2022),” Hearn continued. “But in his opinion he said to me, ‘You said this was the biggest fight in British boxing history.’ I’m a promoter, I say a lot of things. But yes, it was a monster fight. But if you think it’s as big as that, you need to back yourself with a number. The guarantee was huge. He’s never going to make money like that.

“I do think the fight will happen because he’s going to sit there and go, ‘right, what are my options?’ and think basically I gotta fight Conor Benn. But sometimes with Chris he takes it down to the wire and by then it’s too late.”

After both parties parted ways last month, Eubank publicly lambasted his promoter, Kalle and Nisse Sauerland of Wasserman Boxing, for trying to match him against a little-known middleweight, Italy’s Etinosa Oliha. Eubank stated that he wanted to fight unified middleweight titlist Janibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan, a boxer Eubank previously disregarded.

Benn himself has stated he does not think a fight with Eubank will ever materialize.

Benn, who is yet to be cleared by the British Boxing Board of Control, fought for the first time in 18 months last September, winning a decision over Rodolfo Orzoco on a Matchroom-promoted card in Orlando, Florida. Benn's fight with Dobson will mark the second consecutive time he has fought outside his homeland.

Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.