Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn want to fight before the end of the year — with December 17 being mooted as a potential date for their clash.
The pair’s original bout, scheduled for tonight, was postponed after Benn tested positive for the banned substance clomifene. But the fact the adverse finding was flagged in a test carried out by the Voluntary Anti-Drugs Association (VADA) rather than United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD), which the fighters were signed up to and whose tests Benn passed, means the 26-year-old isn’t banned.
And that potentially paves the way for the two men to meet in the coming weeks, with all of the dates available to broadcaster DAZN being studied but the Saturday before Christmas Eve, for now at least, being seen as the most likely.
A meeting between the two promoters involved in the fight — Matchroom Boxing, which looks after Benn, and Wasserman Boxing, which looks after Eubank Jr — and the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) to try to resolve the situation is scheduled for this week. And given Matchroom and Benn’s team believe they have a strong legal, if not moral, position, there is hope that the money-spinning bout can be rekindled sooner rather than later.
Benn knows he faces a battle to clear his name either way and those in his inner-circle are said to have been devastated by what has happened in the last couple of weeks. They were made aware of the positive test in late September but it wasn’t until Thursday that the BBBofC said it would not sanction the contest after news of the failed test broke, throwing the event into disarray.
Benn, whose dad Nigel shared the ring for two epic fights with Chris Eubank Sr back in the Nineties, had spoken with Eubank Jr soon after learning of his positive test but both fighters were happy to proceed. And they were still keen to crack on last week when the whole furore became public knowledge.
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Eubank Jr is understood to have been confident that, despite Benn returning a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs, his opponent had been so mentally affected by the situation that he wouldn’t pose much of a threat in a ring and it would therefore be an easy night’s work. The fight meant super-middleweight Eubank Jr dropping down to meet welterweight Benn at a catchweight of 157lb.
But Eubank Junior had been on weight — or at least no more than one pound over — since the beginning of fight week and was raring to go. The 33-year-old was due to pocket more than £3million for the fight plus his share of pay-per-views revenues, while Benn was set to earn around £2m plus his share of the TV money.
Last week, discussions took place over revisiting the purse split agreement to see Eubank Jr handed a greater share after Benn’s positive test but nothing had been agreed by the time the decision was taken on Thursday to postpone the fight. A source close to the fight said: “We have no idea how this is going to pan out but there will be more twists and turns to come, that’s for sure.”
