Conor Benn looks set to return to the ring in the coming months, and in the other corner may be modern-day great, Manny Pacquiao.
That’s according to the teams of both fighters, who have confirmed negotiations are ongoing for the welterweight bout.
Benn has been out of the ring since April 2022. He almost made it through the ropes in October of that year, however news of a positive drug test had the fight pulled at the last minute.
He has been proclaiming innocence ever since, and recently won one battle of the war to prove it in the form of a WBC verdict that found no signs of ‘intentional ingestion’ of the banned substance. Whilst he may not be happy with how they reached that conclusion, he’ll take the result.
Benn still doesn’t have a British boxing license – and may not do anytime soon – but he’s free to apply to fight elsewhere, and it appears that’s exactly what he’ll do, potentially against eight-division champion, ‘Pac Man.’
Sean Gibbons, the Filipino fighter’s representative, told FightHype.com that Pacquiao would not fight Benn until he was ‘cleared by the WBC.’
“All I can say is it’s confusing. I don’t know about the 270-page report, I don’t know about the eggs, whatever, but I know the man was cleared and I got to give the benefit of the doubt.”
“There are discussions but there’s a long way to go. I mean, would people love to see Manny in the ring? Yeah. Conor? Yeah. Two big names. So it’s kind of just been thrown out there, and there’s where it’s kind of at. It’s an idea that Eddie Hearn had and Manny said I’m up to hear about it.
But until Conor got cleared by the WBC for the issues with the tests, Manny wouldn’t fight him. Now the guy’s cleared, so, you know, if it can happen, I think it would be a fun fight.”
On the talks, Benn’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, recently said that there was interest from the Middle East to stage the fight this summer – and it’s known that he has an event pencilled in for Abu Dhabi on June 3.
It has been reported that Pacquiao – who has been out of the ring since a decision loss to Yordenis Ugas in August of 2021 – has returned to training.