London (AFP)
Former world boxing champion Nigel Benn, 55, announced Thursday his comeback in a ring, 23 years after his last fight, to "end" with alcohol and depression, demons who have gnawed his entire career.
"I've been thinking about it for a long time," the British man, who faces Cameroonian-born Australian Sakio Bika (40), former WBC world champion, said in a press conference in London on 23 November. super-means.
"This fight is everything for me, it's not about money, it's not about financial goals, it's about having the end I wanted and never had" .
Benn, nicknamed the "Dark Destroyer", won the WBO middleweight belt in 1990, then won the WBC super middleweight title in 1992, which he kept for 4 years.
"I do not know how I did to get so far, I had so many problems in my life from a very young age, and in 1972 my brother died murdered, it haunted me all my life. I started smoking cigarettes at age 8, until I was 41. I took ecstasy, smoked joints throughout my career, and was suffering from depression. "
His last professional fight was in 1996, when he challenged Irishman Steve Collins for the WBO super middleweight title, a fight lost in the 6th round.
"I was at the bottom of the hole for so long, I wanted to kill myself, I wanted to run away from it, and in 2008 I met Jesus, that's how my life changed completely. Finished, the joints, finished the ecstasy, finished the women, I stopped everything, "said Benn.
© 2019 AFP