Frank Smith interested in Conor Benn vs. Adrien Broner

By Boxing News - 03/03/2023 - Comments

By Matt Lieberman: Frank Smith of Matchroom says he’s interested in putting a fight together between former four division world champion Adrien Broner and Conor Benn next.

Frank says that Broner (34-4-1, 24 KOs) needs to forget about taking a tune-up fight as he’d originally planned with BLK Prime, and he now has to take a “real fight,” be it against the unbeaten Benn (21-0, 14 KOs) or someone else.

Although Smith doesn’t say, it would appear this would be a one-and-done situation for Broner, as Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn said recently that he doesn’t think AB would be interested in the offer that he would have for him.

If Broner is looking to get a massive multi-fight deal from Hearn like the one that he was briefly given by BLK Prime, he might be disappointed when money doesn’t come close to that.

The 33-year-old Broner isn’t in a position to be choosy right now, having been out of the ring for two solid years, and he can’t afford to stay inactive for any longer if he wants to rejuvenate his stalled-out career.

Broner has done a good job trimming off all the weight that he’d put on during the last two years, and now it’s important that he get back into the ring as soon as possible before he gets out of shape again.

He has a tendency to put the pounds on when he’s inactive due to his habit of eating rich, calorie-dense foods and being sedentary.

If Broner chooses to be selective and stick with his original plans to fight a tune-up, it’ll be interesting to see which promoter, if any, that is willing to sign him.

Benn vs. Broner is massive fight

“100%, massive fight,” said Frank Smith to Boxing Social about a fight between Adrien Broner and Conor Benn. “Adrien, I think he wanted a comeback fight. That’s what he was looking at originally. He’s now going to have to go into a real fight. That’s the reality where he’s at with that fight [Michael Williams Jr] being canceled.

“It’s a massive fight as well for the U.S. for Conor Benn. Adrien is a huge name in the sport, and it would be a massive win for Conor. It’s definitely something we’re looking at.  I’m sure Adrien is in discussions with everyone about what’s next for him.

“He’s been with Showtime for a long time. I’m sure he’ll talk with those guys, but let’s see how it plays out. It’s a massive opportunity to be made with a fight like that.

“We have to get on with Conor’s career. He’s been cleared. He’s had one of the toughest times and experiences over the last four or five months with everything in the public domain. None of us can really understand what that feels like. Not many have been through that.

“We have to focus on containing his career, and he’s 26 years old. This is the key time for him to move on and step up, and for us, it’s time to plan his career and take it forward.

Conor has to get on with his career

“It doesn’t mean in the background we won’t have the British Boxing Board of Control discussions, but at the same time, we won’t let that hold up where he stands now. The people he did the test with, whose job it was to revenue the test have received it and come to their independent conclusion.

“You can’t hold up his career on another entity who had no involvement with the test, and actually, he passed all the tests with that entity.

“You can’t hold back his career on the basis of that. It doesn’t mean we won’t have discussions in the background with the British Boxing Board of Control, but our focus now is to move forward with Conor’s career,” said Smith.

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