CAROLINE BENN, like her husband Nigel, is a born-again Christian.
And her prayers were answered when he was forced to abandon his comeback fight next month.
There was alarm and consternation among Benn’s family and friends when he announced he was going to fight again after 23 years out of the ring.
He was to have met Sakio Bika in a ten-round clash in Birmingham on November 23, which most boxing people saw as an act of extreme folly.
Nigel was deeply upset when he telephoned me at home to tell me of his shoulder injuries and that the fight was off — thankfully for good.
Through his tears, he told me: “Caroline has been praying hard that I would get injured in training and it has happened.
“You know how much I’ve been looking forward to fighting again. The training has been going brilliantly and I’ve never felt fitter in my life.
“I just have to accept that perhaps it’s for the best and a blessing in disguise.
“I’ve never been more gutted. But it wouldn’t have been fair on the fans who paid to see me if I climbed through the ropes less than 100 per cent fit.”
There couldn’t have been a more moving sight than Benn sobbing in front of his son Conor, who is an unbeaten welterweight, in Matchroom’s Brentwood gym.
Usually I’m sympathetic to every boxer who gets injured and has to cancel a fight date after weeks of tough training. But I couldn’t be happier that this has happened to Benn.
As I wrote in SunSport last month, there was no more thrilling sight than Nigel in full attack mode winning the world-middleweight and super-middleweight titles.
But there’s no doubt he would have been putting himself in extreme and unnecessary danger getting involved in a serious fight against Bika, a man 15 years younger who was last in action just two years ago.
When I visited Benn in his gym in Sydney, Australia, four years ago I watched in awe as he went 15 three-minute rounds on the pads.
There can’t be a physically fitter or stronger man in his mid-50s on this earth.
Then he was obsessed in enticing old rival Chris Eubank into a third fight. When that fell through, he was still determined with getting back in the ring for real.
Every ex-fighter I spoke to who was around when Nigel was in his prime was horrified at the thought.
A typical reaction came from Gary Jacobs, the former British and European welterweight champion who is just two years younger than Benn, who said “He must be off his f*****g head.”
Richard Pelham - SunSport Photographer
My View
HAVING worked with Nigel Benn for 30 years, I was shocked and very emotional to be there when he hung up his gloves for the last time.
Just last week I was with him and he was so upbeat, belting the hell out of the bag and doing 35km on the bike.
On Saturday, he asked me to the gym on the Monday — for what I thought would be a normal spar session.
He was warming up in his normal manner and was gloved up by trainer Tony Sims before getting in the ring.
But he was only using his left hand and it was obvious something was wrong.
Tony said to him, “No more, don’t do it.”
But Nigel did another half a round before being told again by Tony to stop.
I was chatting to Nigel’s son Conor and he asked me what had happened. I just said, ‘It’s over’. Nigel sat with Conor and was clearly emotional.
I was just shocked as I couldn’t believe what was happening after what I’d seen from him only a week before.
I’m just really glad he didn’t go into the ring and get hurt.
I think I can class a few of the sport stars I come across as friends and Nigel is one of them, so it was emotional.
But I did get a nice memento from yesterday.
I asked for his gloves when he hung them up, so I’ve got Nigel Benn’s last ever pair of gloves.
Former world welterweight champion John H Stracey, 69, is a WBC ambassador and was furious with him.
He said: “Not only is he putting himself in danger but he is also putting the future of British boxing in jeopardy.
“Can you imagine the outcry there would be against boxing in this country if it should go disastrously wrong? The sport may never recover. He is being foolish in the extreme.”
I was lucky enough to have covered Nigel’s career from beginning to end. In the 90s when he was on live TV he would attract audiences in excess of 13million. They wanted to see blood and guts and he gave it to them in abundance.
Anyone who sat through the Dark Destroyer’s fights will never forget the wars he had with Eubank, Iran Barkley, Doug DeWitt and, the most brutal of them all, Gerald McClellan.
Hopefully Benn has now come to terms with the undeniable fact he is a middle-aged man well past his sell-by date.
John Conteh, the 68-year-old former world light-heavyweight champion, was one of the few who was sympathetic with Benn’s desire to prove himself with the gloves on just one more time.
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John said: “I can understand where he’s coming from. He was in the army before he went into the ring. Once a warrior always a warrior.”
But I’m sure the sighs of relief among fight folk will reach gale-force proportions once the news reaches them that Nigel has counted himself out and hung them up forever.
Pictures by Richard Pelham.