‘He’s not cleared’ – Simon Jordan and Eddie Hearn get into heated row over Conor Benn drug test clearance

Simon Jordan and Eddie Hearn went back and forth on talkSPORT on Thursday over Conor Benn’s recent drug test clearance.

Benn failed two pre-fight drugs tests for the banned substance Clomifene in the lead-up to his grudge match with Chris Eubank Jr in 2022 and was subsequently put under a provisional suspension by UK-Anti Doping (UKAD).

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That suspension was briefly lifted last July by the National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP), allowing Benn to return to the ring in a pair of fights across the pond against Rodolfo Orozco and Peter Dobson.

His suspension was then reinstated again after the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) lodged an appeal in May.

However, the NADP cleared him again last month.

As of right now, Hearn claims Benn is yet to apply for a BBBofC license but insists he is advising his fighter to do so.

“That’s not been applied for yet. For me, any fighter that fights in the UK should fight under a British Boxing Board of Control license,” he told talkSPORT’s White and Jordan show on Thursday afternoon.

“I believe he will apply for it, it is a Conor Benn decision.”

The findings of both of the NADP’s investigations are yet to be made public, and may never be.

According to UKAD, they require permission from Benn to publish the findings, which is yet to be received.

“I don’t know how you can’t be [cleared] if you go through a procedure that everybody asked him to go through, not just a UKAD procedure, but a NADP procedures, and you get fully cleared,” Hearn said.

“And you know, the argument that frustrates me the most is, ‘Yeah, Benn’s serving a silent ban, isn’t he?’

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“No, he’s not serving a silent ban.”

Jordan interrupted: “I don’t know whoever said that?”

Hearn replied: “I wasn’t pointing at you. I’m saying the general consensus, if you read the responses [from the fans] is, ‘Has he served a silent ban?’

“But there has never been a UKAD ban, there has never been a fine. And when you get cleared of any wrongdoing, how can you not be cleared?”

Jordan fired back: “He didn’t get fully cleared, Eddie. No one has explained how he got a failed drug test…

“In this idea of confidentiality if Conor Benn were to tell everybody exactly the outcome of this circumstance and explain to everyone exactly how he has not been sanctioned, what would the breach of confidentiality be?

“The idea he’s able to fight and that he is cleared beyond any reproach is for the birds…

“If I were Conor Benn and I were bound by confidentiality that had no teeth and I was exonerated and cleared, I’d be telling you exactly how I was exonerated and cleared because the consequences of me telling you would be what?

“Who’s going to ban me and who’s going to stop me? Who’s going to sue me? Nobody, nobody’s going to do anything to me.

“And the reason why he’s not saying anything Eddie is because he can’t point to it.”

Hearn went on to add that he recently had a ‘good meeting’ with Eubank Jr’s promoter Ben Shalom over a possible all-British showdown with Benn.

But the Matchroom Boxing chief also said they are eyeing up a shot at WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios as well.