Conor Benn clearly would welcome the battle that’s “private” to him, a rescheduled home conflict with Chris Eubank Jr., if Benn receives his British boxing license on the conclusion of the appellate course of.
There’s a lower-profile battle, one inside his most popular division, on which Benn has set his sights within the occasion the more-profitable Eubank bout doesn’t come collectively once more. England’s Benn needs to check himself in a 147-pound battle towards Mario Barrios, who owns the WBC interim welterweight title.
Battling Barrios might show to be even much less real looking, nevertheless, than rearranging the Eubank bout as a result of Barrios works with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions. Barring an unexpected change in PBC’s enterprise technique, it appears unlikely that Barrios would field Benn, who’s promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing.
Benn is, nevertheless, ranked fifth among the many WBC’s welterweight contenders. Ilford’s Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) might transfer up within the WBC’s subsequent rankings after defeating Peter Dobson (16-1, 9 KOs) by unanimous choice in a 12-round primary occasion DAZN streamed Saturday from The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
“Pay attention, I’ll battle any man,” Benn informed BoxingScene.com. “If it makes cash, it is sensible. , not only for me, for everybody concerned – the promotional corporations. , it’s a enterprise and we wanna give the followers essentially the most thrilling fights doable. So, I feel, for me, 147 is the place I wanna seize a world title. Barrios is a reputation that I’ve talked about so many instances. If we might make that battle subsequent, then I’d be over the moon to make that battle. If not Barrios, then you understand, we’ll see who’s there. We’ll see who needs to battle.”
Terence Crawford owns the WBC welterweight title, however boxing’s undisputed 147-pound champion might transfer as much as the 154-pound division for his subsequent battle. San Antonio’s Barrios (28-2, 18 KOs) beat Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas (27-6, 12 KOs) by unanimous choice to win the WBC interim championship September 30 at T-Cell Enviornment in Las Vegas.
Benn, who beat Dobson at a contracted catch weight of 151 kilos, shouldn’t be ranked within the prime 15 by the IBF, WBA or WBO.
The 27-year-old Benn nonetheless may return to his dwelling nation for his subsequent battle in some unspecified time in the future in the summertime. That’ll require the British Boxing Board of Management and its testing company, UK Anti-Doping, to lose its enchantment of the Nationwide Anti-Doping Panel’s choice final July to raise Benn’s suspension for twice testing optimistic for clomiphene, a banned substance, in 2022.
Failing these two exams administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Affiliation brought about the cancelation of Eubank-Benn simply two days earlier than it was scheduled to happen in October 2022 at O2 Enviornment in London.
Benn has received two bouts in the USA over the previous 4 months as a result of his license stays revoked within the UK. The son of British boxing legend Nigel Benn nonetheless hopes to proceed this degree of exercise in England.
“I’d wish to get out 4 instances this 12 months,” Benn mentioned, “however I do know that’s not real looking as a result of the fights that we wanna attempt to make are mega-fights. So, it’s arduous as a result of the mega-fights take time. They want full 12-week camps, plenty of media, so realistically I reckon thrice this 12 months. If I can go in the summertime in a mega-fight – both towards a Barrios, [Devin] Haney, [Jaron] Ennis, Eubank, any of them names this 12 months – in summer time and in winter could be nice.”
Keith Idec is a senior author/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He will be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
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