Conor Benn has admitted he felt like he was on "death row" as criticism gathered pace following his two failed drug tests.
The rising star was set to face Chris Eubank Jr in the biggest fight of his career last year but failed two drug tests which saw the fight scrapped at short notice when the British Board of Boxing control refused to sanction the contest. Benn decided to give up his boxing licence and appeal the decision, which involved handing a 270-page document to the WBC to prove his innocence.
Benn recently released a statement after the WBC cleared him of any international doping violation, but he was unhappy with the final action taken by the organisation. The 26-year-old has also yet to discover if he will be able to box in the UK again in line with BBBofC jurisdictions, but has suggested he will continue to box abroad in the meantime.
And in an interview breaking his long-term silence with Piers Morgan on his show 'Uncensored', Benn admitted he had suffered a torrid time with his mental health as the process unfolded. He said: “I struggled. There was probably about two months where I was in a really bad way. It’s hurt me. I didn’t think I was going to make it through this period.
"It’s hard because I feel like I was on death row for something I hadn’t even done. If I had done something wrong, you know, I am human. I would raise my hands to it, [and say] ‘I made a mistake’. My dad was in a bad way as well. I was sobbing most nights. I didn’t want to go to sleep because I knew I had to wake up to. You’ve got to remember this was a nightmare for me. How has this happened? How have I got into this situation?”
Benn has now been cleared to box internationally, which has seen him publicly call for some big-name fights including against Manny Pacquiao and Errol Spence Jr. The WBC had ruled on their concluding report that a “highly elevated consumption of eggs” was a “reasonable explanation” for the positive tests.
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Despite being cleared by the organisation, Benn believes he and his family have suffered permanent mental scarring from the torrent of online abuse they received. He continued: “There’s been too many. ‘Kill yourself’, racist comments to my son, to my family. Nothing in person, it’s cowardly. I don’t think it’s social media that bothers me.
"It was more so the shame I felt leaving the house, although I’d done nothing wrong. I was having night terrors, panic attacks. I don’t throw these words (around). Mental health, I was really struggling. I was in a really bad way and I was coping terribly with it. I was coping really bad with it.”
