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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Donald McRae

Eddie Hearn, Conor Benn and the poison at the heart of British boxing

Promotor Eddie Hearn and Conor Benn in September 2022
Promotor Eddie Hearn (left) and Conor Benn a week before Benn’s fight against Chris Eubank Jr was cancelled due to Benn’s positive drug tests. Photograph: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

Eddie Hearn and Conor Benn have been tested over the past eight months in ways the promoter describes as “unbelievable” and his boxer compares to a “witch-hunt”. Yet they will soon intensify the controversy should Hearn announce Benn’s return to the ring in the Middle East. Benn’s comeback will happen despite the fact he recorded two positive test results for clomifene, a banned substance that can boost testosterone by 50%, when he was preparing to face Chris Eubank Jr in a bout scheduled for last October.

Those results still hang over the fighter, who vehemently denies intentionally taking a prohibited substance. He insists scientific proof has cleared him, but Benn and his team have declined to share their 270-page report into the case with anyone apart from the World Boxing Council (WBC), the sanctioning body which ranks him in its list of top 10 welterweights.

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