Carl Froch is following the old adage ‘innocent until proven guilty’ when it comes to Conor Benn and his doping drama.
The undefeated welterweight made headlines for all the wrong reasons last year, just days before his familial grudge match with Chris Eubank Jr.
The Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency found banned substance, Clomiphene, in his system, and the bout was cancelled. It was later revealed to be the second test Benn had failed for that drug.
He focused on a WBC investigation into that first failed test, and was recently cleared by the sanctioning body, who found a ‘highly-elevated consumption of eggs’ to be a reasonable explanation for the traces of Clomiphene.
Whilst Benn isn’t necessarily happy with the verdict – he believes he never had anything banned in his system at all – he is now free to re-enter the WBC’s rankings and fight for their belts.
This is completely separate to a British Boxing Board of Control investigation into the doping tests.
‘The Cobra’ – a four-time world champion – first summed up the situation on his channel, Froch on Fighting.
“My opinion on it is, he failed two drugs test as we know with VADA – the Voluntary Anti Doping Agency. They’ve [WBC] now since cleared him.
They’ve done an investigation or followed up to that [270] page document that was sent to them by Conor Benn’s legal team, and they’ve come to the conclusion that it was high doses of eggs that’s caused him to fail the drugs test.
So we have to take that as real. As real as it can be. If that’s what they’ve said them maybe we’ve got to accept it. But there’s the issue with the British Boxing Board of Control – he’s not got a boxing license with BBBofC.”
Whilst the fighter-turned-pundit is awaiting the British Board’s intervention to reassess his position, as of now he considers Benn innocent.
“When they [BBBofC] have that hearing, and we get some information from however that hearing goes, then I’ll make my decision on how I feel about Conor Benn.
But, for now, as far as I’m concerned, he’s innocent. He’s been cleared. Failed two drugs test with VADA, they’ve now said it’s because of high doses of eggs and we’ve got to accept that for what it is.
Finally, he summed up by praising Benn and hoping for his return to action soon.
“What I do know is Conor Benn is one of the exciting prospects in British boxing. He’s great to watch, got that family name, Nigel Benn who’s a legend in the game, and it’d be great to see him progress his career and move forward.”
It’s believed that promoter Eddie Hearn will have secured Benn a license this month with a return set for April, May, or, at the latest, June. As of writing, there’s almost no chance that takes place in the UK.