Eddie Hearn: ‘Huge amount’ of Conor Benn situation ‘doesn’t make sense’

Eddie Hearn has said a ‘huge amount of information’ around Conor Benn’s adverse drug test result ‘doesn’t make sense’.

Benn, 26, was scheduled to fight Chris Eubank Jr, 33, last Saturday (8 October), but the bout was cancelled three days before it was set to play out at London’s O2 Arena, with Benn having returned a test result with traces of a fertility drug.

The two Britons expressed a desire for the 157lbs catchweight contest to go ahead regardless, and Hearn’s promotion Matchroom worked with co-promoters Wasserman to honour the fighters’ wishes. The British Boxing Board of Control prohibited the fight from taking place, however, and it was postponed.

Benn has maintained his innocence since the adverse finding was revealed, and Hearn told Boxing Social on Thursday (13 October): “One thing of, ‘It was tried to be brushed under the carpet...’ Absolutely not.

“One of the reasons that some of these things are confidential [...] is to give people the opportunity to go through a process and a hearing and clear their name and be heard, without being labelled guilty or ‘a cheat’ immediately.

“Chris Eubank Jr, after getting the information, and [his promoter] Kalle Sauerland, after speaking to his doctors and going through the results, were comfortable – again, I have to be very careful what I say here, because of Conor’s case, but this will come out – that the levels within Conor Benn and the timings around other tests meant that Conor Benn... They were comfortable to move forward with the fight.”

Hearn added that a “career-defining process” awaits Benn but insisted: “There is cause for us to believe that Conor Benn is innocent in this situation.

“Now, I’m letting the situation play out, because I want to see that proven. I feel like people have already made up their mind. The procedure is cloudy, but it’s a procedure that’s well under way, and there’s gonna be a lot of big news dropping soon on this, because it’s a very important matter for Conor Benn.

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“Information that will unfold to you guys about why this might not be what it seems... Let it play out, let the information come to light, and you can make your own decisions.”

Benn was tested by UK Anti-Doping and the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (Vada) in the lead-up to his planned bout with Eubank Jr, and it was an A sample from a Vada test that was found to include traces of the banned substance clomifene. Benn’s B sample from the same test has not yet been released.

“Ninety-nine per cent of the time, it’s exactly the same as the A sample,” said Hearn. “I hope it’s not, but it’s very likely to be the same.”

The Daily Mail, who first reported the news of Benn’s adverse finding, published a follow-up story this week suggesting that the Briton had previously tested positive for the same substance.

“There’s been a lot of rubbish written,” Hearn said. “I’ve read a lot of stuff that’s not true, and that will become present to you guys shortly.

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“The substance that was found – and again, I don’t want to go too deep into this – in an adverse finding is not a substance that you would ever take if you were being tested.

“You’d have to be basically idiotic [...] It’s something that stays in your system for a huge amount of time.”

Hearn added that Benn is likely to release a statement on the matter in the next two weeks.

“Trust me when I say: This is by absolutely no means a cut-and-shut situation,” Hearn said. “There is a huge amout of information that will come out that does not make sense here, but again, people will just say, ‘Shut up, Hearn.’

“But there’s no point me talking about that; you’ve got to see it, and you’re gonna be very surprised by some things that come out, I believe.”