DARREN LEWIS: 'The show of love between father and son during Saturday's fight was an antidote to toxic masculinity'

You didn’t need to know much about boxing to understand the power of two images from Saturday night.

First the winner, Chris Eubank Jr, who’d arrived for the fight with his ­previously estranged dad Chris Sr, providing a shock show of support. Then the devastated loser, Conor Benn, sharing an emotional hug with his dad Nigel in the ring for what seemed like an eternity.

They were pictures that reinforced the importance of fatherhood. The beauty of a bond that should never be broken between a dad and his son.

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You can write (and read) millions of words, spend hours listening to podcasts and tap into all the experts you like on the subject of toxic masculinity. But for the testosterone-fuelled young men around the country who’d tuned in to the fight on Saturday, the show of love between fathers and sons will have hit home far harder.

As a dad I hug my sons as often as I can. They clean me out but I’m proud of them. I tell them as much at every opportunity. We are not afraid to say so publicly. Why should we be? But I’m also aware that they are surrounded by a generation of teenagers growing up in a fractured culture within which many young people are unable to express themselves, period, let alone their deeper emotions.

So the Benn and Eubank images carried more significance than we could ever have imagined. Eubank Sr beat Conor’s dad, Nigel, 35 years ago in a boxing bout that marked both down as warriors.

The pair then shared a contentious draw three years later. While Nigel has been ever-present for Conor since, Eubank Sr and his son were understood to have been estranged for several years.

Just days before last Saturday’s bout, Eubank Jr spoke of his “pain” after his dad had called the whole thing a “circus” and his son a “disgrace”. Benn Jr had even taunted the younger Eubank about his turmoil in the ­build-up. So when both Eubanks emerged from a car together for the contest in North London, it drew an almighty gasp from fans in the venue watching on the big screens.

It also produced one of boxing’s iconic images as the Benn camp watched in disbelief in their dressing room. Macho pride and ego were supposed to have kept the Eubanks apart. Their reconciliation inspired their victory. “Whether I am ringside or in his corner, I am here,” Eubank Sr said.

Just as Benn Sr was in those moments after the fight when his beaten, broken, 28-year-old son clutched him like a baby. It was a message that transcended the nonsense of boxing, even though the fight itself was an instant classic. It will have planted a seed inside more sitting rooms around the country than their occupants would care to admit.

And while both younger men punched each other to a standstill to embarrass so many of boxing’s anti-climaxes, their conduct before and after has left an even more striking legacy. Because while the Netflix drama Adolescence warns us of the machismo creeping up on our kids, these four men have contributed towards an antidote.