‘Conor Benn is innocent’ – Chris Eubank Sr insists son’s rival ‘doesn’t know how to cheat’

Chris Eubank Sr has defended Conor Benn after his fight with Chris Eubank Jr was cancelled due to a positive drugs test.

The son of boxing legend Nigel Benn – Eubank Sr’s famous old rival – is now under investigation by UKAD after VADA found clomifene in his system.

Chris Sr and Nigel shared two historic fights in the 1990s, but have more recently put their bitterness aside.

They do regular speaking events together nowadays and appeared at one of these engagements in Coventry on Friday night.

When the subject of their sons’ failed fight came up, both men had their say.

“Conor Benn is innocent,” Eubank Sr insisted to the crowd, “He doesn’t know how to cheat. He’s a Christian.

“The people around him… let me put it this way, wouldn’t it seem normal to you that if a fighter failed a drug test, if he gets banned, then his entire team should be banned with him because they are one?

“But everyone else is free and it doesn’t make sense to me.”

Regardless of the drugs test, Eubank Sr was adamant that he didn’t want the fight to take place.

His concerns were over the 157lbs catchweight Eubank Jr had agreed to make for the bout.

Benn Sr said in hindsight: “I thank God the fight never happened with this lingering over my son’s head.

“Chris was saying to me, ‘My son can’t make the weight. He can’t make 157lbs.

“Well, he decided the weight.

“Then I saw a picture of him at 159.3lbs and I looked at him and he did not look well at all.

“So I thank my heavenly father for not letting this fight go on. Now I understand what Chris was saying.

“I didn’t get it and then I saw him and it wasn’t right.

“If Conor had fought him and something went terribly wrong, and with that over his head, ‘You took drugs, you took drugs, you killed him or you maimed him,’ we wouldn’t be able to live that down.

“But I know my heavenly father said, ‘No, this is all going to get sorted out first before the fight happens.’”

Benn continued: “I guarantee you 100 per cent I am behind my son.

“If I thought my son ever took performance-enhancing drugs I would hang him out to dry.

“I have worked hard to get my name where it is today but I know my son. He is a dedicated fighter. He would not take drugs.

“We will get to the bottom of this scientifically.

“Let the lawyers and scientists deal with this, but I just pray to god that the apologies are as loud as the media that threw my son under the bus.

“They have already found him guilty before it has gone anywhere. I would be the first to throw him under the bus.

“I’ve watched my son cry in my arms. But he will get vindicated.”