Conor Benn won’t shirk his fatherly duties like old man Nigel does when he juggles Pampers with punches in the fight for the world title

CONOR BENN will not shy away from his fatherly duties in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a world champion.

The 25-year-old’s legendary father, Nigel, dragged himself away from home to grueling training camps in the mountains of Tenerife during his heyday in the 1990s.

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And WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has just completed an eight-week camp without seeing his wife and six children and lives in a separate training house just four miles from the family base in Morecambe.

But Benn has been preparing for today’s clash with Chris van Heerden at home in Essex with his wife Victoria and young son Eli – and feels incredibly good about it.

While juggling pampers and punches and sporting a huge grin, he said, “It’s still easy. It’s still good. Sometimes I take my son to the gym.

“The training doesn’t change my life very much because I’m always at home. At home or in the gym.

“If I’m at home and need to take a nap I have earplugs and Victoria can take over because she looks after him most of the time when I need to take a nap or I’m at the gym. It’s perfect.

“I’m home more than nine days out of ten because I’m always with him after training and I relax.”

South African veteran van Heerden, 34, has clearly failed to see the caring parental side of The Destroyer and claims he will cause a big stir in Manchester as Benn is too much of an angry and emotional fighter.

But 20-0 ace Benn, who wants a world title or an all-English pay-per-view showdown in the summer, insists he has ice in his veins to complement the fire in his belly.

He said: “I know my personality makes me seem tense and aggressive, but that’s who I am.

“I do what I do with passion, I love winning and I fear losing and that combination makes an intense fighter.

“But my opponents have to change their script because they keep coming out with the same old crap.

“The old ‘He’s where he is because of his father’ or ‘He relies too much on his strength and can’t box’. Dude you’re a year late to the party, Van Heerden gets both sides of the barrel – I’ll outwit him and take his head off.”

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Welterweight Benn was ringside for Kell Brooks’ brilliant Grudge win over Amir Khan in February and was looking to jump in the ring that night to secure a showdown with the winner.

But Brook appears close to confirming a catchweight fight with Chris Eubank Jr. at middleweight.

That leaves Benn vs Khan as the most likely match of the summer, although the Londoner would prefer his former hero to cruise into the sunset in one of his luxury motors.

He said: “I don’t know what to gain from the Khan fight.

NOT EXCITED ON KHAN

“But I will fight anyone they put in front of me and it’s a massive domestic fight – they’re idols for rivals.

“Ideally I wanted the winner of Brook vs Khan but now I think Khan just has to retire because he was lopsidedly beaten.

“But greed is a terrible thing and when you’re buying £500,000 Mansory Lamborghinis I can see why you need another payday.

“I would love if they were all ringside on Saturday but the Brook fight is the one I want because I always want to fight the winner.

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“To be honest I probably would have liked the Khan fight more if he had won. But he was hit unilaterally and I have no interest in fighting someone who just went through that.

“But if Kell wants to go up to 158lbs to fight Eubank Jr then good luck to him.

“If Khan wants to come and have it with me then he’s welcome, both just show you that greed is a terrible thing.”