Chris Eubank Jr has offered to pay for a fan to have a tattoo of Conor Benn removed from his body.
A Twitter user shared a photo of a supposed tattoo on their abdomen, telling Benn he was "distraught" after his fight with Eubank Jr was cancelled due to an adverse finding in one of his pre-fight drug tests. "I'm absolutely distraught," they wrote. "Conor Benn, you were my hero and now I've got to walk about with this rest of my life as I can't afford laser treatment to remove it. Broken hearted."
Eubank Jr saw the tweet, and offered to have his team organise the money to get the tattoo taken off. "Don’t worry mate I’ll pay for your tattoo removal," he wrote in response to the viral photo. "Just shoot over your info to my team & I’ll sort everything out for you. Email is in my bio." At the time of writing, the user had not responded to the boxer's offer.
Eubank Jr may be in a joking mood, but he is also likely devastated by the news that broke yesterday of his fight with Benn being called off. The younger fighter tested positive for clomifene; a banned drug that is usually prescribed to treat infertility in women but can also boost testosterone production in men, and despite both men agreeing to fight, the bout was ultimately cancelled.
He was heading towards the final stages of a tough weight cut which would have seen him reach a career-low weight after 11 years in the professional ranks. Ultimately, the fight has been postponed by promoters Matchroom Boxing and Wasserman, but no new date can be confirmed or even discussed until after Benn's result is investigated.
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Matchroom Boxing boss Eddie Hearn fought to save the fight, but the British Boxing Board of Control refused to sanction the fight due to what they felt were the sport's best interests. The board remained relatively quiet, aside from a statement confirming that the fight could not go ahead under their auspices.
That statement read: "On the evening of October 4, 2022, the Board of the British Boxing Board of Control Limited resolved that the contest between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn scheduled to take place on October 8, 2022 is prohibited as it is not in the interests of boxing. That was communicated to the boxers and promoters involved on the morning of October 5, 2022."
Hearn responded when the fight was cancelled, with one line from Matchroom's statement saying: "It is undeniable that the British Boxing Board of Control's decision to withdraw their sanctioning was procedurally flawed and without due process. That remains a legal issue between the promoters and the Board which we intend to pursue."
