Eubank Jr and Smith urge Conor Benn to give up on plans to fight outside UK

Chris Eubank Jr and Liam Smith have urged Conor Benn to abandon his plans to resume his career outside Britain and to accept any punishment that may be handed down to him by UK Anti-Doping. The two boxers, who will meet in a rematch in Manchester in June, broke away from publicising their own fight to address the ongoing Benn controversy.

Eubank, who had been due to meet Benn in a catchweight contest last October only for his rival to record two positive test results for clomifene, was emphatic. Benn needs to “clear his name” and regain his British Boxing Board of Control licence before Eubank would consider fighting him. Smith responded as bluntly when asked if Benn, who has been provisionally suspended and charged by Ukad, should accept any ban that may follow a full investigation into his case.

“Yes,” Smith said, “because if you’re innocent it shouldn’t take this long to prove you’re innocent. [Benn] went silent for two or three months, because you’re trying to find the best sports lawyers and nutritionists to look at a loophole round how it got in his system. I feel like they’re still doing that now.”

Benn has always strongly protested his innocence and claims that a 270-page report produced by his team exonerates him. But that report has not been widely shared and Benn has spoken often of his desire to resurrect his fight against Eubank in the Middle East. When Eubank was asked what Benn needed to do for them to finally meet in the ring he said: “It’s clear as day. Get his British boxing licence back so that he can fight in the UK, so that we can do it where the fight makes the most sense, where it’s supposed to happen. Not in the Middle East or when there’re all these things going on about [the unresolved