Rising boxing star Conor Benn apologises after mocking rival over deformity

Super-lightweight sensation Conor Benn was caught making fun of a rival while in Portugal training.

The video, filmed by fellow boxer, WBC silver super-featherweight champion Ohara Davies, and posted online shows the 20-year-old calling Robin Deakin “happy feet” – a crude reference to Deakin’s club foot.

The video was later removed from Periscope and an apology posted.

Deakin, dubbed Britain’s worst boxer, was born with a club foot and has undergone around 60 operations.

PERISCOPE•GETTY

Conor Benn has apologised for his comments

In the video, which is slightly out of sync, Benn can be heard saying: “What’s his feet called?

“He’s got funny feet. We’re gunna start calling you happy feet.”

Club foot is a deformity where the affected foot appears to have been rotated at the ankle.

Deakin described the comments as “low” on Twitter.

He said: “I dont except any apology from @ConorNigel he's a good fighter I wanted to fight, I fight the best, we will sort it in the ring only way” [sic]

TWITTER

Deakin, right, has previously been dubbed Britain's worse boxer

He’s got funny feet. We’re gunna start calling you happy feet

Conor Benn

“I was born different but different is good it stands out. I am who I am, I do what I do”

Benn recently landed his first major endorsement deal as he sets out to become a world champion like his father.

A contract with sporting giant Reebok has been agreed until the end of 2017.

Deakin, who could not work until the age of six, has been chasing Benn for a fight after

Later posting an apology on Periscope, Benn tweeted: “I want to apologise for my Periscope about club foot disorder, it’s been taken out of context.

“I was talking about Robin Deakin, he’s been chasing me for a while, insulting me and going for it and I bit the bait and I really wanna apologise.

What I said has been taken out of context because this individual wants a fight. I apologise to everyone. I bit the bait. I am only human.

— Conor Nigel Benn (@ConorNigel) January 17, 2017

“It’s nothing funny about it whatsoever, it’s not what I’m about.”

But he added Deakin had taken the episode too far and that he was “only human”.

Nigel Benn, now 52, is one of Britain’s most famous boxers and competed from 1987 to 1996.

During his nine-year career he won the WBO middleweight title, the WBC super-middleweight title and the Commonwealth middleweight title in 1988.

Original Article