Harley Benn opened up on cutting dad Nigel and brother Conor out of his life
Harley Benn (9-2, 1 KO) followed his famous fighting family into boxing, active between 2017-2023.
Benn turned professional without any amateur experience, but ‘The Spartan’ failed to make an impact like his father, Nigel, and half-brother, Conor, who fights this Saturday night in London against family rival, Chris Eubank Jr, live on DAZN.
Harley has since moved over to MisFits Boxing, where YouTubers and celebrities are matched for fights, backed by KSI. In fact, he has a fight all scheduled in, just one week after Eubank vs Benn is over.
Nigel Benn has several children – Conor, Dominic, Harley, Layla, India, Sade, Rene. But Harley has always endured an on-off relationship with his famous father and described their fragile relationship as “rocky”.A father himself, 28-year-old Harley Benn spoke to SunSport all about the rift between him, his dad and half-brother, “The relationship was sort of rocky away from boxing. It would have taken a lot more than boxing to fix it on both sides and I cut my dad off last year. That’s how it is at the minute,” he explained.
“I’m more at peace with it than how I was when I was younger in my early 20s, it used to affect me, having a rocky relationship with my dad and everyone coming up to me, ‘Oh your dad’s amazing, your dad’s this, your dad’s that.’
“OK, yeah, he’s an amazing boxer, but he’s not been a good dad to me, so it was hard to hear that and people screaming his praises at me. And I was like, yeah, he was an amazing boxer, one of the most entertaining boxers I think Britain’s ever seen, but when it comes to our relationship, it’s a whole lot deeper than boxing.”
His relationship with his sibling, Conor Benn, is just as complicated, he went on to reveal.
“Me and Conor? I’ll be honest, it would just be fake if we were to get on. We come from completely different places, we don’t value the same things and if I’m honest, he probably doesn’t see me as a brother and I don’t see him as a brother, unfortunately, but it is what it is. We’ve both got our own lives going on, both got our own families, both got a boy and a girl, both got partners, both got a lot going on.
“And I’ve really tried with Conor in the past, but I know Conor wants to be the only son of Nigel that is boxing. Wants all the limelight. I wish him nothing but the best in that [fight with Eubank Jr].
“But Conor’s always had his back up against me. Several reasons, I get told I look 10 times more like my dad, and I’ve seen Conor in comments sections saying, ‘No, he doesn’t, I do’. It’s not that big, so why does that bother you? If someone thought Conor looks more like my dad than I do, that would not affect me in the slightest.
“Me and Conor were born into a sticky situation, we’re four days apart in age, so my dad was doing something wrong. And my dad had children with two people at the same time. Me and Conor used to argue a lot when we were kids, around 13 and 14. I actually took a liking to him for a while and then I’m just thinking how that went downhill, when he was treating random guys like his brother more than his actual brother.”
He continued to discuss his dad, “But my relationship with my dad is a bit of a sticky one because I’ve had genuine good times with my dad. I’ve looked up to my dad in certain periods of my life, but when it comes to the boxing side of things I believe he let me down.
“He was there for my last camp, I fought a guy called Faizan Anwar out in Dubai and it went wrong for me. My dad was there the whole camp, but had a really bad off-night and the better boxer won on the night, no excuses. But, I would say, I put a lot of pressure on myself for that fight, and I would also say that my dad put quite a bit of pressure on me, saying, ‘Make sure you knock this guy out, son’, and that’s not him purposely trying top out pressure on me, that’s just how he is.
“I was confident in winning that fight, but I don’t know what happened. I was thinking in my head, ‘If I don’t do well in this fight, is this going to affect my relationship with my dad?’ And, unfortunately, it did, which I didn’t see coming. Because I pretty much every day with him for two-and-a-half months. I was on the pads with him, I was doing what he asked me to do…
“I’ve just had a son six months ago and if he ever decided to become a boxer and he lost a fight, the first thing I would do is give him a cuddle and tell it’s alright. Not, ‘Why did you not beat him son, why did you not do this, why did you not do that?’ I didn’t need to hear that there and then. It was gutting enough losing.”
