Frank Warren has had his say as two of his fellow British promoters attempt to salvage a fight that has been marred in controversy.
Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn were all set to face off this Saturday in London. A breaking news story from the Daily Mail threw all that into doubt, though, as it revealed one of Benn’s Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency drug tests had returned an adverse result. Despite the British Board of Control ‘prohibiting’ the fight and branding it ‘not in the interests of boxing’, those involved are battling to have the event go ahead.
Eddie Hearn and Kalle Sauerland, joint promoters for the fight, have said that the decision will come after legal discussions with the board. One man who knows the intricacies of putting on a fight well is Frank Warren, owner of Queensbury and someone who has been staging scraps since 1980.
Warren told TalkSPORT that, in his view, the BBBofC had made the right decision.
“The Board has shown some integrity here if the fact is he’s tested positive. Nobody has denied that, but the bottom line is why have you signed up for VADA if you didn’t need to and were relying on the UKAD tests?
“Why pay the money out to have them tested?”
“The Board of Control obviously have a real concern about this, and I can understand where they are coming from. There has to be some integrity in this, they applied the rules as per their rulebook.
“It says that if a fight is to the detriment to boxing, then they will withdraw the sanction. That can be for any reason. I am assuming they are applying that because of the VADA test.”
When asked if, were he involved, would he cancel the fight, he said he would.
“Yeah I would. If something goes drastically wrong, what are you going to do about it? Where do you go with that?
“Everyone was worried about it in the sport anyway. Conor is coming up in weight, Chris Eubank is having to drain himself to make that weight. He’s 33, he’s not a young kid.”
There are plenty of views from all corners of the boxing world, but a general consensus amongst fans is that more information about the VADA test is required before the event regains some nobility. We expect news today as to wether or not the fight will go ahead.