Fan-favourite heavyweight, Dave Allen, has offered his thoughts on the news of Conor Benn’s positive VADA tests and believes that the situation, for now, is a relatively straightforward one in which Benn should serve a ban.
Straight-talking Allen told Seconds Out that Benn is guilty until proven innocent rather than the other way around, and slammed the “disgusting” attempts of the promoters to continue with the Eubank-Benn fight, irrespective of the positive drugs test.
“He’s been found with drugs in his system, a banned substance, so he is guilty. He’s not innocent until proven guilty, he’s guilty right now, prove his innocence. I’m not going to crucify him, at the minute he’s guilty, he’s been found with the substance in his system, therefore guilty. If he wants to prove his innocence, then he can do that, go do that, fair play, me and many others will go ‘sorry about that’. At the minute, he is guilty as far as I’m concerned and he should have a four-year ban. That kid over there [points] is 1-0, he would serve a four-year ban, Conor Benn, why should he not? He should face a four-year ban.”
“Conor Benn was an exciting fighter, I’ve met the guy loads of times and he is a nice kid. He’s still a nice kid, it doesn’t make him not a nice kid, but at the minute, for me, he has the drug cheat tag on him.”
“[On promoters trying to get the fight to go ahead] Disgusting really. Really, really bad.”
With Benn relinquishing his British Boxing License this week, there are concerns that he may never fight again. However, Benn and his team are still working hard to get to the bottom of a suggested contamination to prove to the world that the is not the ‘drug cheat’ some in the sport, including Allen, are branding him.