The most important news of the day is the cancellation of Saturday's fight between Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. due to Benn's doping and the unsuccessful interference of his promoter.
Conor Benn's fight against Chris Eubank Jr, scheduled for Saturday in London, has been officially cancelled. Benn's doping test set off a chain of events that eventually ended with the aforementioned decision, which promoters from Matchroom and Wasserman Boxing commented as follows.
After the banned clomiphene was found in Conor Benn (21-0, 14 KOs) ahead of his scheduled fight with Chris Eubank Jr. (32-2, 23 KOs) on Saturday, Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn, with the help of lawyers, fought to save this duel. However, in the end, Hearn's efforts were unsuccessful, and the confrontation between Benn and Eubank Jr. was canceled.
Top Rank head Bob Arum, who is one of the promoters of the WBC world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, remains optimistic that his boxer will face the unified champion Oleksandr Usyk in the fight for the absolute title in the first months of 2023. Fury's handlers were recently in talks for a year-end fight with the former two-time world champion. Anthony Joshuabut these negotiations failed.
Tonight, according to promoter Kalle Sauerland, we will find out for sure whether Chris Eubank Jr. (32-2, 23 KOs) fight with Conor Benn (21-0, 14 KOs) next Saturday. So far, the press conference, due to take place at 13:00 local time, has been postponed by three hours.
“Wilder hides his right hand well and knows how to take it by surprise. This is his best weapon, but I am ready for it, ”says Robert Helenius (31-3, 20 KOs), frequent sparring partner Deontay Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs), who will meet him on October 15 in the semi-final eliminator for the WBC heavyweight belt.
Fights are usually announced by promoters, but this time the next fight Daniel Dubois (18-1, 17 KOs) was announced by his coach Shane McGuigan. The holder of the "regular" WBA heavyweight championship belt will return to the ring one weekend in November. This will be his first defense of the belt he took from Trevor Bryan (KO 4) in the middle of June.
The International Boxing Federation (IBA) has decided to return boxers from Russia and Belarus to competitions organized under its auspices, which will certainly exacerbate the crisis with the IOC. Vladimir Klichko commented on this step as follows:
The fate of Saturday's fight between Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn now appears to be in the hands of lawyers after the British Boxing Council (BBBoC) called for the fight to be canceled following Benn's positive doping test. Promoters Matchroom and Wasserman, as well as both fighters, still want to fight, despite the BBBoC saying it is "not in the best interests of the sport."
WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury showed how he sparred in his training camp with Oleksandr Usyk. Fury began preparing for the fight, tentatively scheduled for December 3 in Cardiff. Who will become the next opponent of the King of the Gypsies is still unknown. In his interviews, Fury often called the Ukrainian "a big middleweight, too small to give him any problems in the ring."
