Matchroom Boxing and the British Boxing Board of Control have in recent weeks come under severe pressure following the farcical proceedings of the collapse of the highly anticipated bout between Chris Eubank Jr & Conor Benn which was scheduled for October 8th. A failed drug test on behalf of Conor saw the fight collapsing despite the best efforts of Matchroom Boxing & Wasserman boxing seeking to proceed the contest after medical advice was sought and importantly Chris Eubank jr’s say so. However, fifteen days prior to the encounter on Sept 23 was the date of Benn’s failed test but it only came to the surface three days prior to the contest via the daily mail newspaper. Ultimately the BBBofC stepped in and refused to sanction the fight which left Matchroom to consider legal action or use an overseas boxing commission and effectively take charge and ignore the British governing body. Time frames were far from ideal to organise either legal action or an outside body to oversee the contest which ultimately led to the postponement of the contest.
The BBBofC have done themselves no favours either considering their doping rules in which UK anti-doping agency is the only testing body they openly recognize in testing procedures and not the VADA agency which Benn failed in his testing protocol for the banned substance of Clomifene. This also with a 15 day delay of making this public knowledge of which Matchroom claim the board knew about of which the BBBofC objected to at the time of fightweek.
Frank Smith, the prodigy of Eddie Hearn and of whom is the CEO of Matchroom boxing, has called for the BBBofC to accept results and recognize VADA for boxing contests under the regulation of the BBBofC. A move of which would be preventative in ensuring the farce of the fight week such as Eubank Jr v Benn can be avoided.
“I think now is the time for the British Boxing Board of Control to look at their regulations and make it clearer,” Smith told iFL TV. “If they decide that any VADA testing moving forward will be accepted by the British Boxing Board of Control and that’s a rule as of this day forward, then everyone understands that. It’s just that the normal or standard process was not followed in this instance.”
“Ultimately that’s a decision the Board made, a call they made,” Smith said. “I can’t say why it took that period of time. Look, being completely open to you, if they would have cancelled it 15 days before it would have been much easier for us as a business. We lost a lot of money in the whole situation. If we heard 15 days before, we would have been able to mitigate those losses as well.
“I would much rather [get a determination] 15 days before,” Smith continued. “If that was always going to be the outcome, then come out with it then, then it saves us a lot of money (Matchroom)."
Smith went onto say that the BBBofC need to look at their rules and accept VADA testing results so fighters have to go the process and hearings in getting a judgement in regards to their careers,
“I think what’s important to say is that if the Board today said moving forward all VADA tests are fully under our remit and we will accept them and same with UKAD tests and any positive tests, the steps are here, whether that it’s you can’t box until you’ve had the hearing and gone through the process, etc. Ultimately now is the time for them to look at their own rules.”
