Benn battles demons and doubters to defeat bitter rival

Win driven by April loss to Eubank Jr and resentment towards his doubters after failed drug tests in 2022

- Donald McRae

‘I feel like I’m going to go to home and cry,” Conor Benn said quietly in the early hours of yesterday morning at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. “I think I’m going to cry here. Oh man, it’s been hard.”

Despite the surprising ease with which he had beaten his nemesis Chris Eubank Jr over 12 one-sided rounds on Saturday night, Benn’s face was bruised. But his mouth almost crumpled because of a different struggle locked deep with himself. In 2022, Benn tested positive for clomifene twice in separate tests held months apart from each other.

He reacted angrily then - protesting his innocence vociferously but never producing in public the evidence he said cleared him categorically of intentionally taking a prohibited substance. Benn was in undoubted turmoil but the infamy did not hurt his bank balance.

Benn made a reputed £7.5m seven months ago when he was finally allowed to return to the ring in Britain - but he lost clearly against Eubank Jr in a brutal bout. That defeat was his first as a professional and it hurt far more because it was doled out by a man he claimed then to detest.