When Conor Benn visited the most remote depths of his personal hell, the most unhospitable corners in the underworld of his mind, he nearly decided he did not want to resurface. “I didn’t think I was going to make it through this period,” he said in 2023, and when asked by Piers Morgan if he had felt suicidal, Benn admitted: “Yeah, I’d say so. And it upsets me now, because I don’t know how I got so bad.”
Benn’s innocence has been debated and doubted for two-and-a-half years, ever since the revelation that the now-28-year-old had returned two adverse drug-test results. Those Voluntary Anti-Doping Association findings came to light just days before he was due to face Chris Eubank Jr, plunging Benn into darkness and a different fight altogether: with fans, boxing authorities, and himself.
