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.
To this day, Benn proclaims his innocence. He has shed tears privately and publicly – tears which some take as signs of innocence, while others perceive each drop as a betrayal of his guilt. That is how drastic the division is among fans.
Intentional consumption cannot be proved, but the science says the banned substance clomifene (used to treat infertility in women) was in Benn’s body. The unbeaten welterweight has almost tried to dispute said science, saying in a more recent interview with Morgan that he can barely accept that clomifene was in his system. He believes there has been a vendetta against him, with UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) provisionally suspending Benn in early 2023 and the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) stripping him of his licence, leading the “Destroyer” to spend around £1m fighting his case.
He and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, claim Benn has been cleared three times, but that is a semantic argument – still, Benn threatened to drag a journalist out of an interview “by the neck” for calling them out on this, as The Independent witnessed firsthand. Firstly, the WBC offered the possible explanation that Benn had consumed too many eggs, an explanation that Benn refused to use. Then, the National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP) provisionally lifted Benn’s suspension in July 2023, only for Ukad and the BBBofC to successfully appeal that move. In late 2024, the NADP again lifted the suspension, and this time there was no appeal.
It is worth noting that, in the meantime, Benn fought twice in the US on different boxing licences, winning on points both times but without impressing. Yet while he once said he might never fight in Britain again, out of choice, he now finds himself hours away from a rescheduled bout with Eubank Jr – at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in front of 65,000 fans in London.
Eubank Jr, unsurprisingly, has his thoughts on Benn’s saga.
Although Benn opted not to use the WBC’s egg-related excuse, Eubank Jr twisted it in his favour at a press conference in February, slapping his rival in the face with an egg. “The egg was meant to embarrass him,” Eubank Jr told The Guardian this week. “It was meant to make sure that his cheating will never be forgotten.
“There are so many active fighters that have been caught cheating and are now still fighting, and no one says anything about it. I couldn’t let that be the case with this man. I needed to make sure I did something so he would never be able to play it down, which is what they were trying to do. ‘Oh, he’s cleared, he spent £1m on proving his innocence.’ No, he was cleared to fight, but cleared of having performance-enhancing drugs in his system? That’s very different.”
Eubank Jr has a point, though some will point out that a true protest against Benn would have seen the 35-year-old refuse to box him. Unrealistic, of course; Eubank Jr will make millions to fight Benn, will feel he should get to do that, and will hope to add injury to insurance by beating his fellow Briton.
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Interestingly, Eubank Sr has almost appeared to be on Benn’s side more than Jr’s.
The 58-year-old said in 2022: “When I look at a fighter, I look at the spirit in the man […] When I look at Conor Benn, that’s a pure young man.” Yet in recent weeks and months, he has criticised Jr’s behaviour in the build-up to this fight, which itself is a “disgrace” to Sr.
“If you don’t think this is a disgrace, fight me,” he said last week, addressing the fact that Benn will move up two weight classes while Jr will be restricted by a hydration clause. “The smaller guy in Conor Benn has had his career destroyed for one fight. My son coming down from 168lb to 160lb puts his life in danger. Three years ago, they were talking about him coming down 157lb. This is daylight murder. And when I say murder, you say that’s a bit too strong.”
It is interesting that the weight disparity is Sr’s concern when it comes to health, and not the possibility that his son will share the ring with an accused cheater. In any case, Eubank Sr, who has lost a son and brother in recent years, is clearly tormented by this episode. He will not be present on Saturday, he has insisted. But Nigel Benn will be, in the opposite corner, supporting his son Conor. More than 30 years after Sr and Nigel fought for the final time, their boys will wage war.
Benn descended into his personal hell on the eve of his failed fight with Eubank Jr. On the night when he finally faces his bitter rival, he will hope to emerge from those depths at long last. Whether or not Benn will ever truly be forgiven is unclear; whether he even needs to be is the subject of fierce debate. But on Saturday, he might finally be able to move on.
