Benn believed the first test, two months earlier, was ‘faulty’ and vows to stop fighting until the matter is resolved
Conor Benn admitted that he had failed two Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) drug tests in the months leading up to the £25 million catchweight mega-fight with Chris Eubank Jr which was cancelled 48 hours before the scheduled October 8 event by the British Boxing Board of Control.
The Boxing Board prohibited the event and deemed it “not in the interests of boxing” after Benn failed a drug test on September 1, but the 26-year-old boxer, who relinquished his licence after a hearing with the boxing authorities last Friday, has disclosed that there was another failed test two months earlier.
“I was informed [of the first fail] and I thought ‘It’s probably a faulty test’,” said Benn. “I thought, ‘We’ll get to the bottom of it’. We’re still trying to do that. We’re making progress. But the way it’s been blown up has affected me so much. My innocence will be proven, it has to be.”
Benn has been tested by both VADA and UK Anti-Doping, the latter being the testers recognised by the British boxing authorities.
“I passed all my UKAD tests, which people aren’t talking about. I’ve passed all my tests in and out of camp. I’ve been a professional for seven years and never failed a test. I signed up to VADA in February, so it doesn’t make any sense. Why would I take something then?
“Trace amounts were found. The tiniest of traces. The only thing I can think of is contamination.” Benn told The Sun: “I’ve not taken anything. I never have done, never would. It’s not what I stand for, it’s not what my team stands for. Why would I take the biggest fight of my life, sign up to VADA — voluntary anti-doping — and then take this substance? If you Google this substance, it stays in your system for months. Do I look like an idiot?”
Benn continues to insist he is innocent and argued that the presence of the female fertility drug clomifene is due to ‘contamination’.
“I wouldn’t want to fight without this being resolved. But should I really care about playing the system? I do, so I wouldn’t,” he added. “But part of me thinks, if people are portraying me as the villain, I might as well be the villain. I haven’t really decided yet. I won’t fight until this is resolved, with a foreign licence or not. Whether people believe it or not is not down to me. But there comes a stage where you harden and think, ‘Eff you, then’.
“I don’t want to get there, but I also don’t want to keep getting hurt by this. It’s horrible dealing with this at 26 after working so hard every day. I wonder if I can ever fight again right now. But I cannot let them win. I didn’t want to be the villain because I am innocent.”