Benn vs Van Heerden: What time is fight, undercard, latest odds, prediction and ring walks tonight

Conor Benn fights Chris van Heerden in Manchester tonight as he plots his route to welterweight stardom.

Saturday’s bout is set to be his last test before Eddie Hearn plans to accelerate his development against the best that one of boxing’s most stacked classes has to offer, with Kell Brook now firmly in ‘The Destroyer’s’ sights.

Benn - son of former two-division world champion Nigel Benn - continued his march towards a world title in Liverpool in December, when he followed up contrasting wins over Samuel Vargas and Adrian Granados with a dominant knockout of veteran Chris Algieri.

The undefeated 25-year-old - now 20-0 as a professional with 13 KOs to his name - will also be confident of making another statement against Van Heerden on the same night as Errol Spence Jr and Yordenis Ugas clash in a huge welterweight unification contest in Texas.

An experienced southpaw from South Africa, Van Heerden turns 35 in June and has not fought since December 2020, when his IBO title meeting with the fearsome rising star Jaron Ennis was called off in the first round and ruled a no contest after he sustained a nasty cut from an accidental clash of heads, having been put under huge pressure from the opening bell.

‘The Heat’ had previously reeled off five successive wins since suffering the only stoppage of his career in an emphatic defeat by then-rising star Spence in Toronto in September 2015.

Van Heerden’s only other pro defeat came at the hands of Nikola Stevanovic in 2010, while he reigned as IBO welterweight world champion from 2011-13, defending against the likes of Matthew Hatton.

Saturday’s undercard features an eagerly-anticipated rematch between Chris Billam-Smith and Tommy McCarthy for the European cruiserweight title,