PROS & CONS
Benn back in ring... but razzmatazz is missing
CONOR BENN is making his Las Vegas debut this weekend, but it has not got the razzmatazz a fight in Sin City should have.
The unbeaten British fighter (above) posted a sign advertising his weekend clash with Peter Dobson this week on Instagram as if it was his name ‘up in lights’.
But it was not one of the huge LED boards which line the famous Strip – instead, a much smaller one seemingly a little off the beaten track.
That is probably more fitting given this fight is happening with little fanfare and only because Benn is still not able to compete in the UK.
Promoter Eddie Hearn is putting on the show at the Chelsea ballroom in the Cosmopolitan in the afternoon in Vegas to ensure it is primetime in the UK for TV.
It is a matinee showing of what should be one of the brightest stars in boxing from these shores, but who is still tussling it out with UK Anti-doping and the British Boxing Board of Control.
Their appeal hearing over Benn’s temporary suspension being lifted by the National Anti-doping Panel is ongoing.
“I don’t look at it as bad press,” said Benn. “Me fighting in Orlando and now in Vegas is not under the best conditions, but it’s a big chapter in my story and I like how my book is coming along.
“It’s challenging, but I can’t wait for my homecoming. The Americans have all the world titles and I want them.
“But it’s also every fighter’s dream to headline in America – especially Las Vegas, the home of boxing – so it’s a blessing. I get to grow my profile in America, too.”
Benn is heading into his second bout in the US after a points victory against Rodolfo Orozco in Florida last year.
He is determined to continue his career, despite his two failed Voluntary Anti-doping Association tests for banned drug clomiphene in 2022.
Benn claims there was contamination in his food and says he has proof in how the substance was digested, which clears him of taking clomiphene through a tablet.
But he insists the BBBOFC and UKAD have shown no interest to see that, with the hearing date still unknown.
He added: “I will win the hearing and the case will be finished, but I will still show them the evidence because it will help other athletes.”