Conor Benn teased a potential rematch with Chris Eubank Jr in a classy interview after losing to his bitter rival via unanimous decision. The highly-anticipated bout went the way of the older fighter, who honoured his legendary father by claiming the spoils after 12 punishing rounds. Neither man left anything on the table in a fight which clearly meant more than just winning.

All three judges scored it 116-112 in favour of Eubank despite how close it was from the first bell to the final seconds of the last round. Benn was visibly distraught as the decision was read out and appeared to be holding back tears as he embraced his father Nigel. He kept it classy in his post-fight interview, though, as he refused to dispute the outcome.

Benn also played down his bitter war of words with the Eubank camp before the bout, dismissing it as nothing more than fighting talk.

"I don't know," he said. "Maybe fourteen months out of the ring played a factor. That'd be the only thing, inactivity. Apart from that, I felt like it was a close fight. I'm not going to go 'yeah I think I won it' and all that.

"I've got to watch it back. I know it was close. I stayed on the ropes maybe a bit too long. He worked harder towards the end. But I'll have to watch it back.

"I enjoyed it and a massive thank you to all my supporters who came out. Some homecoming. We always knew Chris is a good fighter. All the fighting talk is fighting talk. He's a good fighter."

Benn went on to insist that while he would be open to a rematch with Eubank, he would also be happy to return to welterweight and face Mario Barrios for a world title shot.

"If we don't do the rematch, which I'd love to avenge that loss, I'll drop down to welterweight and win the WBC world title," he added. "It's either Mario Barrios or the rematch with Eubank. Whichever happens next, I'll be content with."

His father Nigel also spoke in the immediate aftermath of the fight to emphasise the importance of losing gracefully. He made it clear that he was proud of his son despite the result, pledging to examine what went wrong and go back to the drawing board.

"I thought he did really well," said the elder Benn. "He'll learn a lot from this. He'll come back stronger. He was working too much on the ropes.

"He should've been off the ropes, but we're not taking anything away from Chris. It's his night. We can handle defeat gracefully, you know what I mean? Now we go back to the drawing board and look where we went wrong. That's it."