Benn v Eubank chaos leaves a legacy of greed, stupidity, and danger
Benn v Eubank chaos leaves a legacy of greed, stupidity, and danger: The sport of boxing is haunted by past deaths and tragedies. For the Eubank and Benn families, this week’s mayhem in British boxing has done nothing to erase the painful memories that still surface occasionally.
After Michael Watson and Chris Eubank Sr. fought in the ring in 1991, Watson was in a coma for months and has never fully recovered.
Four years later, Nigel Benn’s intensity left his opponent, Gerald McClellan, blind and with severe brain damage. In 2016, Nick Blackwell was knocked unconscious by a punch from Chris Eubank Jr. Because of the ring, both families have suffered deeply.
Eddie Hearn is very familiar with these sad tales from British boxing. He also showed his emotions freely when Patrick Day, a bright and inspiring young American fighter, died in a fight on a Hearn promotion in Chicago in 2019.
BBBofC
However, the notoriously outspoken promoter and his paymasters, the streaming site Dazn, risked losing any remaining credibility by ignoring the British Boxing Board of Control’s (BBBofC) order that Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. compete on Saturday night.
A quick remark is in need to underscore how dangerously near British boxing came this week to completely dissolving into anarchy.
Rightfully, people are talking about how implausible it was to try to let Benn fight on Saturday at the O2 in London after he tested positive for clomifene.
In spite of the fact that the fertility drug had been detected in Benn’s system by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (Vada), the boxer and his promoter stubbornly maintained that he had tested negative in all tests conducted by UK Anti-Doping (Ukad), which monitors fighters on behalf of the British board.
Benn insisted his innocence and replied, “I’ll see you on Saturday night,” implying he would not be attending because he had not been disciplined by the board. As Kalle Sauerland, promoter for Eubank Jr., put it, “the experts we interviewed couldn’t perceive that it was offering an edge” with reference to clomifene.
Statements
However, reputable sports experts have cautioned that the medication can increase testosterone levels by more than 140%. But despite that, Eubank Jr. “was happy to continue,” as Sauerland puts it.
The dishonesty at the sick old heart of this promotion and boxing was exposed by the cynical attempts to ignore the incriminating evidence of the Vada test by pinning the lowest of expectations on the fact that the board depends on Ukad results.
On Thursday at 1 pm, there was going to be a news conference.
Only around 5 o’clock did Hearn and Sauerland appear. The thought of sneaking out the back door to grab a beer was very appealing. Hearn made an effort at humor. But he wouldn’t take any, suggesting he knew the list of pressing issues was long and troublesome.
Declarations
Hearn added in his statement, “It has been a really difficult day. We were anticipating an event and a conflict with such rich precedent. We wanted to make this trip to make postponement official. Just to be quite clear, Conor has not been suspended, and we don’t think he’s been given a fair hearing.
We deliberated carefully and made a conclusion that we believed was in the best interests of all parties involved; contrary to claims to the contrary, we did not take the matter to the highest court or engage foreign commissions.
We really wanted this fight to happen, but we had to cancel it in the end because it wasn’t in the best interest of the sport or the British people.
If either Benn or Eubank Jr. had suffered a brain injury in the fight, it would have been devastating for British boxing. Hearn stressed that the promotion was postponed rather than canceled, thus the disaster has been averted for the time being.
The sleazy drama, however, has raised new concerns about oversight and control. These two terms, which are rarely used in the same sentence as boxing, need to be scrutinized now more than ever.
The BBBofC had to end the fight because of the positive drug test. The company’s executives should be placed on notice to become far more stringent, but they haven’t yet explained how long they knew about Benn’s failed test.
Hearn made an effort to place blame on the board for relying on Ukad to carry out doping monitoring and not recognizing Vada test findings.
Indicating that he would pursue legal action against the administration further, he said as much. The board needs to clarify this issue and take a stronger stand against doping in British boxing, which is widely believed to be widespread in the sport.
Facts
Even if it’s wishful thinking on Hearn’s part, he and everyone else engaged in promoting this fight—which has been constructed on the supposedly virtuous “tradition” of the two terrible battles between Eubank Sr. and Benn Sr. in the 1990s—should examine their motivations and methods.
They understand, perhaps even more cruelly than the Benn and Eubank families, that boxers’ lives are perpetually on the line when they step foot in the ring. More than just shame and disgrace will remain as a result of the events of the past week. It smacks of avarice, idiocy, ineptitude, and potential harm.
Many decent and sometimes great men and women still perform their work on the dangerous side of the ropes in boxing, and their efforts continue to elevate the sport.
There is a need to reform the system that has put them in such a vulnerable position. These are not new words, but after a week in which it has been so difficult to put the past behind us, their urgency is clear.