Eddie Hearn has responded to threats by the British Boxing Board of Control regarding a potential overseas comeback fight for Conor Benn.
Board secretary Robert Smith stated earlier in the week that any British license holder involved in a bout featuring Benn would ‘unlikely’ to be given permission to fight, even if it was to take place under another commission.
When asked by Boxing King Media about Smith’s comments, Hearn remarkably admitted he would consider not promoting the fight.
“Maybe I won’t promote the fight! The whole thing is a mess. The board are now contacting commissions around the world to try and stop Conor Benn from fighting – he doesn’t even have a BBBofC license.”
“It’s a really wild situation, and I’ve never seen the board behave like this before. There’s reasons for it, and I’m sure that will come out, but it’s frightening.”
“Conor Benn is obviously fuming, because he knows the board are trying to stop him fighting internationally, under commissions that are happy for him to fight.”
The warning from the board came after news emerged that Chris Eubank Jr was now a frontrunner to land a big money fight with Benn in Abu Dhabi on June 3rd
Eubank had been expected to face Liam Smith for a second time next, with reports emerging a few weeks ago that he had activated the contractual rematch clause after being comprehensively stopped by Smith in January.
However, sixth months on from when Benn’s two failed VADA tests saw their original meeting scrapped, the scheduling of another date with ‘The Destroyer’ now appears to be more likely.
Hearn revealed that any fight between the two family rivals would take place at the middleweight limit of 160lbs, as opposed to the much criticised 157lbs catchweight that was in place first time around.