By Jack Tiernan: John Fury says Conor Benn should be banned if his B-sample tests positive. Benn (21-0, 14 KOs) tested positive for the banned substance clomifene, and it’s only now been leaked to the boxing public by the Daily Mail.
John feels that Benn is innocent until proven guilty, but if his B-sample is positive for clomifene, he says he should be banned. However, John doesn’t say how long the 26-year-old Benn should be banned.
There’s a possibility that Benn could be banned for four years, but that’s highly unlikely, given that this is his first positive test. More than likely, Benn would receive a short suspension of six months, which would basically be a slap on the wrist.
What would be a major deal is if Benn had to be tested year-round by VADA, not UKAD. So if Benn were the type of fighter that depended on PEDs to be successful in the sport, it would be a negative to be tested year-round.
Some boxing fans feel that Benn has been using PEDs for quite some time. They point out that Benn went life & death with French fighter Cedrick Peynaud in 2017, and then suddenly, he started knocking guys out and looking like a world champion.
Without any positive tests by Benn for the last five years until now, the fans that speculate that he’s been using have nothing to base their opinion on.
“If Conor Benn has been using, ban the f****er. Ban him because it’s a dangerous sport,” said John Fury to Secondsout about Conor Benn testing positive for the banned substance clomifene. “Whatever they do, whatever they don’t, but I’m having no opinion on it at all.
“A man is innocent until proven guilty. I’ve been in that position myself when you’ve been pronounced guilty before the trial. I’ve been there and know how it feels.
“So until the B sample comes up, I’m going to say the benefit of the doubt to Conor Benn. The fighting men are athletes, but for now, what can I say? If it comes out the B sample that he’s been using, BAN him! There’s no more to be said, is there?” said John.
“I don’t know in what world do you manage to fail a drug test at this stage in your career especially,” said David Price to Boxing Social about Conor Benn testing positive for clomifene.
“He’s got professionals around him, Conor Benn. “It stinks a little bit. It doesn’t look like there’s any way to explain that to me. People are going to defend him around him. He needs dealing with appropriately because that cost a lot of people a lot of money.
“Who would risk their career to get an edge like that? Conor Benn is going to please his innocence. You’ve got to have a zero-tolerance approach for things like that,” said Price when asked if Benn should be banned for four years.
“He’ll [Benn] be 30 [by the time his 4-year suspension ends], but if he gets a four-year ban, he’ll just go over to America to fight. That’s the thing with boxing and drug tests because there’s not one governing body you can deal with and say, ‘You’re banned, and that’s it.’
“There are so many different ways to find your way into a boxing ring in this sport. He’ll only just not fight in Britain. Obviously, this is where his bread is buttered, and this is where he’s known, and this is where he wants to fight. It’s a shame.
“He’s not stupid. He should know what’s going on in his body. Unless something freakish has happened with the samples, he just has to take responsibility and own it.
“Obviously, it was going to go ahead, and the promoters involved would have known about it. Who leaked it? Why did they leak it? How did they know? They’re [VADA] are the ones that always seem to catch drug cheats. You rarely ever see the UK-Anti-Doping catching anyone.
“When it does happen, you have to go to their website to find out. It doesn’t get publicized. It can take two years for it to be publicized. I think VADA has more of a zero-tolerance way about them. UK Anti-Doping is free of charge. They just go around doing it.
“Conor Benn will be back in the ring soon, and we just want to see him fight. That’s just the nature of life. It was a high-profile one, that’s for sure,” said Price.
