Conor Benn has relinquished his British boxing licence & a hearing on October 21 upheld “allegations of misconduct” over a failed drugs test.

Conor Benn : Relinquish | Boxing licence | Allegations

Benn has been trained by Tony Sims since his professional debut, with his father, Nigel, having known and sparred with Tony since both of their respective boxing careers.

He made his professional debut in April 2016 aged 19 at The O2 Arena in London defeating Bulgarian Ivailo Boyanov by technical knockout in the first round.

He followed this with a points victory over Luke ‘The Nuke’ Keleher at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow in May, and a knockout of Lukas Radic in June On 10 September 2016, Benn was due to fight Silvije Kebet on the undercard of Gennady Golovkin vs. Kell Brook.

After Silvije Kebet pulled out Benn defeated late replacement Joe Ducker by technical knockout in the second round to take his unbeaten record to 4–0.

On 24 September, Benn fought his first ever six round fight and was taken the distance by Ross Jameson. Benn won a clear points decision.

Conor Benn Relinquish 

Conor Benn has ‘voluntarily relinquished’ his British boxing licence after ‘allegations of misconduct’ were upheld by the British Boxing Board of Control.

Conor Benn : Relinquish | Boxing license | Allegations

On October 5 – three days before his highly-anticipated showdown with Chris Eubank Jr – it was revealed that Benn had failed a VADA drugs test.

“Trace amounts” of clomifene were found in his system several weeks before all parties were notified of the positive test, said to be on September 23.

Despite knowledge of the situation for almost two weeks, the BBBofC did not prohibit the fight until the Wednesday of the fight, while Eubank Jr was prepared to continue with the bout after taking medical advice.

However, the fight was eventually postponed, and now Benn faces a battle of his own to prove his innocence, promoter Eddie Hearn acknowledging on talkSPORT on Wednesday that Benn was fighting for his career.

Hearn also suggested that Benn would be making a statement of his own later this week with legal proceedings currently preventing him from doing so.

Nevertheless, the BBBofC has released their own statement to reveal that Benn had recently given up his licence in light of recent events.

Conor Benn Boxing licence 

Conor Benn has relinquished his British boxing licence and a hearing on October 21 upheld “allegations of misconduct”, the British Boxing Board of Control has said.

Benn, however, has criticised the “unfair and biased” procedure from the BBBoC, and says the misconduct allegation was not in relation to a failed drugs test ahead of his cancelled clash with Chris Eubank Jr.

Conor Benn : Relinquish | Boxing license | Allegations

It was revealed just days before the scheduled catchweight fight, which was due to take place on October 8, an “adverse analytical finding for trace amounts of a fertility drug” had shown up in one of Benn’s tests by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA).

The BBBoC ‘prohibited’ the bout against Eubank Jr, which was due to take place at The O2, stating the fight was “not in the interests of boxing”.

A statement, released by the BBBoC on Wednesday, read: “Conor Benn was called by the Board of the BBBofC to attend a hearing to deal with allegations of misconduct pursuant to Rule 25.1.1.

The hearing took place on 21st October 2022. On the morning of the hearing, Mr. Benn voluntarily relinquished his licence with the BBBofC.

“In accordance with its Rules and Regulations, the Board determined the allegations following the hearing at which Mr. Benn was legally represented.

“The allegations of misconduct against Mr. Benn were upheld.”

Conor Benn Allegations

Conor Benn, who according to his promoter has been gathering evidence to prove that he was not abusing performance enhancing drugs, has responded to the BBBofC’s announcement that they have upheld allegations of misconduct against him – namely acting in a way that is ‘detrimental to the interests of boxing.’

Conor Benn : Relinquish | Boxing license | Allegations

Via his social media accounts, the young welterweight’s team released the following statement on his behalf:

“Conor’s focus at this time is solely on clearing his name.

The Board, however, has made it extremely difficult for Conor to focus on doing that by its conduct of an unfair and biased procedure. In such circumstances, Conor decided not to renew his licence (which had lapsed). Conor told the Board that if it did not accept that his licence had lapsed, then he renounces it.

He strongly refutes the allegation of misconduct (which for the avoidance of doubt is *not* in relation to the VADA issue) and firmly believes that an independent tribunal will reach a wholly different conclusion.

At the appropriate time Conor will speak out on this and on the doping allegation, to the extent that he can whilst legal proceedings are ongoing. In the meantime he reiterates, in no uncertain terms, that he is a clean athlete.”

Benn’s fight with Eubank Jr had exploded in terms of hype and excitement before it was postponed, even reaching a mainstream audience because of the historic family rivalry started by their fathers in the early nineties.

By Rishabh

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