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10th Dec 2016

Liam Gallagher leads the congratulations after Conor Benn’s first-round KO

Benn was fighting on the Joshua-Molina undercard.

Tom Victor

The main event in Manchester might be Anthony Joshua’s title defence against Éric Molina, but there was plenty to get people excited on the undercard.

Conor Benn has been making a name for himself (well, technically his dad Nigel did that first), and the 20-year-old scored the fourth knockout of his six-fight professional career to date.

Benn took just 66 seconds to get the better of compatriot Steve Backhouse, his quickest stoppage to date, impressing the Manchester Arena crowd no end.

And among those in attendance was Liam Gallagher, who made it clear that the newest member of the Benn boxing dynasty has won himself a new fan.

And the Oasis founder wasn’t the only man to chime in with praise for the promising youngster.

The welterweight now has three first-round KOs in a professional career that only began earlier this year with victory over Ivaylo Boyanov, and he can surely expect some bigger-name opponents as we enter 2017.

Benn’s father held world titles at middleweight and super-middleweight during a nine-year career in the ring, and the younger family member still has a way to go before he can match Nigel’s 22 wins on the bounce.

Catch up with this week’s episode of Football Friday Live