Tony Bellew has made his stance absolutely clear on performance enhancing drugs in the sport of boxing.
His comments on the subject come amidst the ongoing Conor Benn doping drama. Benn was found to have a banned substance in his system in the lead up to his fight with Chris Eubank Jr, which was then postponed for that reason.
It’s now come to light that the young welterweight had failed another test earlier in the year, and boxing fans around the world await more information about potential contamination or a potential ban from the sport.
Bellew, who would have been commentating on the Benn – Eubank card as part of his duties with streaming service DAZN, hadn’t commented on the situation publicly until now. Speaking to IFLTV, he confirmed his stance on PEDs and their dangers.
“I said this before and I’ll say it again – if a fighter failed a test after I just fought him for performance enhancing drugs, I would go in the room with a f***ing bat and even the score. Make of that what you will.”
Having said that, Bellew is firmly in the camp of hearing all of the facts before making his judgement. Moving onto refer more directly to the Benn situation, he made that clear.
“I’m also not stupid enough to condemn someone before I hear everything … I’ve heard certain things before, I’ve heard fighters failing drugs tests and I didn’t condemn them. I remember waiting to find out about Canelo Álvarez before I said what I said about him. I remember [waiting to speak on] Alexander Povetkin before I found out what I found out about him.”
“I’d wait and see what’s what, and find out what the real true facts are before you hear from this board, or that commission – because they’ve all got something to lose, and the credibility with all of them is at stake here.”
Benn has started to speak out via national newspapers about the case, continuing to claim innocence and status as a clean fighter. If general consensus is anything to go by though, it doesn’t seem like many in the sport, or those who watch it, have been convinced.