Benn battles demons and doubters to emerge triumphant against Eubank Jr

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“I feel like I’m going to go home and cry,” Conor Benn said quietly in the early hours of Sunday morning at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium,“I think I’m going to cry here,Oh man, it’s been hard,”Despite the surprising ease with which he had beaten his nemesis Chris Eubank Jr over 12 one-sided rounds on Saturday night, Benn’s face was bruised,But his mouth almost crumpled because of a different struggle locked deep with himself.

In 2022, Benn tested positive for clomifene twice in separate tests held months apart from each other.He reacted angrily then – protesting his innocence vociferously but never producing in public the evidence he said cleared him categorically of intentionally taking a prohibited substance.Benn was in undoubted turmoil but the infamy did not hurt his bank balance.Benn made a reputed £7.5m seven months ago when he was finally allowed to return to the ring in Britain – but he lost clearly against Eubank Jr in a brutal bout.

That defeat was his first as a professional and it hurt far more because it was doled out by a man he claimed then to detest,He earned even more on Saturday when he apparently took home £8m to Eubank Jr’s £10m,But he did not look like a man with money on his mind,“You go through things in life but you just have to keep fighting,” the 29-year-old said,“Facing your own demons every single day.

That’s your hardest fight.You have to live in your head every single day.Getting in the ring is no problem.”He said his uncharacteristically composed performance was driven by a resentment towards those who doubt him: “It’s the chip on my shoulder, people saying ‘Oh, you can’t box, you can’t do this or that.’ I woke up with that feeling every morning – people think I can’t outbox him for 12 rounds? Watch me.

That fuelled me,”Benn is highly emotional and complex and he admitted that “it’s hard for me to tone it down … but I felt a lot of pressure from my team to get it right,You can’t get it right for eight weeks and not on fight night,You’d be a mug,”Benn boxed with such authority that he was entitled to remind us that: “I said earlier in the week there was going to be a systematic beat-down and that’s what I done”.

At one stage in his domination of Eubank, Benn revealed, “I said to him: ‘This is easy work.Is that all you got?’”Benn seems determined to move down from middleweight to his natural home at welterweight – where he needs to shed 13 pounds to make the 147 limit.“It’s going to be hard,” he conceded while stressing that his “dream” is to emulate his father, Nigel, by winning the WBC world title.Eubank Jr had looked severely diminished in the ring but, to his credit, he came out to face the media first.“I’ve been through hell and back to make it here today,” he said, hinting at unspoken “issues” during his long camp.

“I genuinely thought that regardless of the issues that I’ve been dealing with, I would be able to go in and win.But from that first round I realised I was mistaken.”He held our gaze.“I’m a fighter.This is what I do, regardless of the dangers and the risk.

We go to war,I tried my best but Conor put on a hell of a fight,I congratulate him,”Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionAsked to explain his problems, Eubank shook his head,“No, this night’s about Conor.

He fought a great fight and I’m not here to talk about me.He’s a tough man and a great fighter.”He sounded like a man who was done with boxing.“No, we’re not talking about that.I’m not in a state of mind to be thinking about next fights.

I need to heal,I need to deal with what I’m dealing with,”Someone asked Eubank if he was OK,“I’m alive,I’m happy.

I get to do what I love every day, regardless of the trials and tribulations.I’m still fulfilled.So I’m good.I’m OK.”Eubank has persisted more than most in still asking questions about Benn’s positive drug tests but, with the fight beaten out of him, he was less belligerent and dogged than usual: “If you share a ring with a man for 12 rounds or 24 rounds you have that respect.

”There was relief, too, in the fact that Benn had also run out of animosity,Asked if his vanquished 36-year-old rival should retire Benn said: “He’s got more important things to worry about – with twin boys [who are due to be born soon],He’s a dad of two now and that’s always a priority,It’s not down to me to say whether or not he should retire,”Benn reiterated that his long spat with Eubank Jr was “over”.

He said: “I feel like we’re done now.I can breathe.This has been three years of my life – hearing Benn-Eubank, Eubank-Benn every single day.It’s good to sit here and say: ‘Yeah, it’s done and I’ve ended it with a win.’ That’s closed.

Let’s move on,Let’s just call it a day,”
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Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for apple, brown butter and oat loaf | The sweet spot

I adore a good loaf cake. There’s something about them that’s just inherently cosy and wholesome, and this one in particular is perfect for the colder months, not least because it’s simple and sturdy in the very best way. It’d be right at home with a coffee for breakfast, as well as gently warmed in a pan with butter and served with hot custard on a rainy evening. A real all-rounder.Prep 5 min Cook 1 hr 25 min Serves 8180g unsalted butter 200g light muscovado sugar 2 large eggs 50g soured cream 210g plain flour ½ tsp cinnamon 40g porridge oats, plus extra to finish1½ tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt 2 eating apples 2 tbsp demerara sugarHeat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin

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Kids have a wobble in the face of rabbit jelly | Brief letters

I sympathise with Tim Dowling and the challenges of releasing blancmange from a rabbit mould (Jelly’s back! Here are three worth making – and three that should wobble off to the bin, 12 November). My mistake was adding chopped pineapple to the jelly mix, with the resulting jelly looking as though we were seeing the undigested contents of a rabbit’s stomach. My children refused to eat it.Dee ReidTwyford, Berkshire Tim Dowling has missed out one important ingredient from his otherwise commendable recipe for blancmange rabbit: the two sultanas you stick on for the eyes.Jane GregoryEmsworth, Hampshire Regarding concerns over Epstein Road in Thamesmead (Letters, 12 November), spare a thought for those unfortunate residents of Savile Row in central London

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Think autumn, think Piedmont – wine from ‘the foot of the mountain’

By the time this column comes out, it will be Big Coat weather, so those collars will be getting higher and the scarves thicker. And, when there’s a chill in the air, I like to eat food than leans towards smoky and earthy flavours: charred vegetables, stews, sausages and mushroom everything.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more

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‘I’m now a one-issue voter’: US shoppers fear Italian pasta tariff will cause shortage

On Monday night, Kelly planned to make dinner and spend the night inside with her family. Instead, she told her husband to put the kids to bed so she could get in the car, drive to Wegmans and “panic buy” $100 worth of Rummo pasta.Kelly, a 42-year-old product manager who lives outside Philadelphia, has celiac disease, which means that eating gluten triggers an immune response that leads to digestive issues. She saw fellow gluten-free people on Reddit and TikTok freaking out over the fact that the US is mulling a 107% tariff on Italian pasta imports. According to the Wall Street Journal, the hike could lead to those companies withdrawing from the US market as early as January

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Jimi Famurewa’s recipe for puff-puff pancakes

Efteling is a fairytale-themed, 73-year-old amusement park in the south of the Netherlands that, after two consecutive years of visits, has become an acute obsession among my family. We love the vaguely folk-horror animatronic trees, witches and giant sea monsters lurking within a labyrinthine real forest. We love the anthropomorphised talking bins that plead (in a haunting, perpetual sing-song) for crumpled pieces of paper to be shoved into their suction-powered mouths. We love the inventive rides that, variously, judder along rattling wooden tracks, plunge cursed pirate ships into water, or nudge gondolas serenely through sylvan scenes of bum-flashing goblins showering beneath waterfalls.But our very favourite thing about the place might well be the poffertjes stand, a perennially busy kiosk where exhausted families gather for dinky paper boats filled with these yeast-puffed and sugar-dusted miniature buckwheat pancakes that are a Dutch institution

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Polpa position: budget tinned tomatoes score well in Choice taste test

Consumer advocacy group Choice has taste-tested 18 brands of chopped and diced tomatoes, finding three cheaper cans outranked many more expensive brands.Four judges ranked tinned tomatoes from Australian supermarkets and retailers, assessing them on flavour, texture, appearance and aroma – with flavour accounting for the biggest percentage of overall scores.Italian brand Mutti’s Polpa Organic chopped tomatoes, costing $2.95 for a 400g tin, was awarded the highest score of 80%. It was the most expensive product tested, described by judge Fiona Mair (who also judges at the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show) as having “an earthy fresh tomato aroma, really rich juice and flesh”