When Conor Benn makes his professional debut on Saturday at The O2 Arena on the undercard of Anthony Joshua's IBF heavyweight title fight with Charles Martin, he will be fighting for the first time in two years.
The 19-year-old won 20 of the 22 amateur fights he had in Australia and has been matched with Luke Keleher having joined the Matchroom boxing stable from where he will be trained by Tony Sims.
It is because of the profile of his popular father, Nigel Benn -- perhaps Britain's most exciting fighter during the glamour era of the 1990s -- that he is so far known. He revealed he chose not to work with another famous figure in Ricky Hatton, however, when choosing his trainer, and despite expecting to campaign at light-welterweight where Hatton made his name.
"I feel at home with Tony, and that's the most important thing, because I'm a long way away from home, and I feel at home every time I'm in the Matchroom gym," Benn told PA Sport.
"[I trialled training with] Ricky Hatton, and then went straight to Tony. I felt like a fish out of water up there [with Hatton in Manchester]. Ricky's a great trainer but I felt a fish out of water. All my family's down here in London."
Benn has grown up outside of the UK, most recently in Sydney, Australia, where his father will continue to live, but travelling to fight is something with which he is familiar.
"[My amateur fights] were just like [in] stables or bingo halls, not like here where you have your nice venues -- York Hall -- we don't have none of that over there. Horrible. The state titles were out in the stables, the middle of nowhere. My dad would take me."
Asked if they were deliberately taking a different approach to the hands-on one witnessed in Chris Eubank Jnr's career -- Nigel had a fierce rivalry with Eubank Snr while at his peak -- Conor Benn responded: "My dad's going to be there in the shadows, so to speak, I know he's there when I need him but he's not going to be ruling the cameras and showboating, it's going to be completely different.
"All I need to know is my dad's going to be there. He wants it to be about me."
Nigel Benn, who also said he still hopes for a third fight with Eubank Snr, explained that Barry Hearn's relationship with Eubank Snr is what has given him such faith in Eddie Hearn, Barry's son, to promote and guide Conor's career.
Hearn has recently guided the finest amateurs in Joshua and Luke Campbell but understandably spoke of the need for patience surrounding the inexperienced Benn, whose father added: "My first fight was in a tent and they were taking down the scaffolding poles. His first professional fight is at The 02.
"I don't want to be like [Eubank Snr]: you're your own man. That's how he is, he just loves the limelight. It inhibits Eubank Jnr.
