Saturday’s fight between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn now seems to be in the hands of lawyers after the British Boxing Board of Control had seemingly pulled the plug on the bout in the wake of a positive drugs test by Benn.
Promoters Matchroom and Wasserman as well as both boxers are still keen to press ahead with the fight, despite the BBBoC declaring it was not in the best interests of the sport.
And while Eddie Hearn, the head of Matchroom, said that lawyers were dealing with the matter and even claimed he had been advised that he would likely be able to get an injunction against the BBBoC in order for the fight to go ahead.
“It’s a difficult situation for the Board because the Board do not acknowledge Vada testing,” Hearn said. “They only acknowledge UKAD for which Conor has had multiple tests for this fight, all of which have been negative. There’s a lot to digest and go through and right now the legal teams are speaking to the Board. They have to be comfortable as well to sanction the fight. We’ll see how it unfolds.”
Benn had produced a positive test for clomiphene, a substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned list, which is normally used to treat infertility in women, a story that was first broken in the Daily Mail.
The BBBoC released a statement saying it had decided to “prohibit” the fight, despite the test having been carried out by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA), not UK-Anti Doping, which carries out doping control on its behalf.
The failed test is understood to have been from a sample taken in August. Benn is understood to have passed a UKAD test subsequently.
