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Nigel Benn: I was twice world champion and still wasn’t happy

Phil D. Jay 
WBN Editor
‘Dark Destroyer’ finds his true calling in life

Two-time world super-middleweight champion Nigel Benn has completed a full circle in his life from his days in a seedy world of fast women and drugs and is now enjoying devoting his time preaching the word of God.

It is a far cry from the 48 year-old’s persona of the mean, moody boxer, who’s stare could put fear into a fighter long before they both stepped into the ring, but Benn has admitted that his time as a prizefighter failed to give him the fulfilment he needed.

"My life was full of sex, drugs and rock and roll gangsters. I cheated on my wife for 16 years but Jesus changed me and now he is using me to spread his word,” Benn told thisisgrimbsy.co.uk.

"Everyone has marital problems but I am here to give them good news. You only get through these problems because of Jesus, there is no other way. If I didn't have him in my life we would have never got through it. We would have got divorced.”

Benn was a dominant force at 168lbs in the mid-nineties as he made nine successful defences of his WBC super-middleweight, including the fateful night in February 1995 when he stopped the tragic Gerald McClellan when behind on two of three scorecards.

His feud with rival Chris Eubank is the stuff of legend, although Benn remembers the time as an unhappy one and sees the changes he has made as the key to him living out a more pleasing life in future.

"I was twice world champion but did I profit from it? Was I happy? No! I had everything, I couldn't get any higher up in my career but I still wasn't happy,” he said.

“Now I am ready to stand and spread God's word and that is the most beautiful thing. Life for me can't get any better now."

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