British UFC champion Leon Edwards has said Conor Benn ‘should be banned’ after the boxer returned an adverse drug test result last week, leading to the cancellation of his fight with Chris Eubank Jr.
Almost 30 years after Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank fought for the second and final time, their sons were due to go head to head in London last Saturday. However, the highly-anticipated catchweight bout was cancelled after Benn, 26, returned a test result with traces of a fertility drug – namely the banned substance clomifene.
“You should be banned,” Edwards told reporters on Friday. “I think calling it off was the right decision.
“There should be no adverse finding in your testing; if you’re clean, you’re clean, and that’s it. I think what they did was right for boxing. If they’d allowed it to go ahead, I don’t think it would’ve been good for the sport.
“The sport’s hard enough as it is; just naturally getting hit, you take a lot of damage – your body does, your brain does, and if somebody’s juicing as well... It’s like, come on.”
Jamaican-born Edwards became Britain’s second ever UFC champion by knocking out Kamaru Usman in stunning fashion in August.
The welterweight is expected to face Usman, who outpointed him in 2015, in a trilogy fight next year – possibly at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Meanwhile, Benn vs Eubank Jr was set to headline at the O2 Arena in the English capital last weekend, and it is unclear whether the fight will be rearranged after the British Boxing Board of Control prohibited it from taking place in the first instance.
Benn has maintained his innocence since the test result was revealed, saying on Thursday: “I am still completely shocked and surprised by this and it has been a tough couple of days.
“My team and I will consider the next options including rescheduling the fight, but my immediate focus is on clearing my name because I am a clean athlete!”
