Conor Benn has revealed he struggled with suicidal thoughts after testing positive for a banned substance ahead of his fight with Chris Eubank Jr.
Benn failed a drugs test in the lead up to last October’s planned encounter, causing the cancellation of the fight.
The 26-year-old maintains his innocence, and was recently reinstated to the WBC rankings after the body ruled that a “highly-elevated consumption of eggs” could have caused the adverse finding.
Benn twice tested positive for the female fertility drug clomifene and remains under investigation UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) and the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC).
The boxer has again insisted he did not take the drug, opening up on the mental strife he had suffered since the fight was called off.
“It’s hurt me, it’s hurt me this has,” Benn said in an interview with Piers Morgan on Talk TV. “I didn’t think I was going to make it through this period.
“I was shamed for something I hadn’t even done, it’s hard because I felt like I was on death row for something I haven’t even done.
“If I had done something wrong I’m human, I’d raise my hands to it ‘I made a mistake’, whatever it is I raise my hands. Never this, and I felt seven years of hard work and sacrifice and leaving my family and the image I maintain was just ruined at somebody else’s incompetence. It’s been hard for the family.”
The son of former two-weight world champion Nigel, welterweight Benn is undefeated as a professional fighter.
He and Eubank Jr had been due to meet at the O2 Arena on 8 October in a catchweight bout.
Benn has indicated in a statement that he feels testing errors are to blame for a false finding, saying that he had “serious concerns” over the process and pushing back on the WBC’s egg explanation.
The welterweight admitted that the saga had left him with suicidal thoughts: “I didn’t think I’d see another day. Yeah [I was feeling suicidal], yeah I’d say so, and it upsets me now because I don’t know how I got so bad.
“I got in a really bad way about it. You’ve got to remember, if you think I’m innocent or if you don’t think I’m innocent, I am innocent.”
