Conor Benn’s trainer Tony Sims is presently in Los Angeles working with his fighters ahead of their respective bouts in Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Firstly, on January 27, John Ryder takes on Jamie Munguia in Phoenix, and a week later Benn fights Peter Dobson in Las Vegas.
Benn had been hoping to fight Chris Eubank Jr in London instead, but due to the ongoing appeal by UKAD and the British Boxing Board of Control into the NDP’s decision to lift Ben’s suspension after two failed PED tests, the Eubank bout was again shelved and Benn was left to box on the road again.
Benn has gone from the possibility of boxing in front of tens of thousands in England, against a bitter rival, to boxing on a Saturday afternoon in a Vegas hotel.
“Yeah of course it is tough, but you’ve just got to be professional about it, and that’s what I’ve said to him, that he’s a professional fighter and that’s what he does for a living,” said Sims. “He always trains hard anyway, so it’s just about keeping busy, getting a decent fight under his belt again, and just waiting for the big money fights to come up.”
Sims has stayed closely by Benn’s side throughout the most-talked about PED saga boxing might have ever seen. Sims is an old friend of Conor’s father, Nigel, and swears that his fighter is innocent. He is also keen to put the entire episode behind them and for Benn to be active.
“Well. he boxed in September [against Rodolfo Orozco, and won via unanimous decision], we were open to box in December, obviously for the [Chris] Eubank Jr fight, so we were looking to box straight away,” Sims explained. “He [Benn] had a hard fight in September, so he needed a couple of weeks off, he had a couple of bumps and bruises. December 23 would have been ideal for what we were set to do, but we couldn’t get the fight over the line, and then the next available date was February 3 – obviously as we all know, Eubank never signed the contract, we done all of it our end but he wouldn’t sign it – so the February 3 date was still there with DAZN. Obviously we’ve gone on that bill to keep busy, but until a big fight arises.”
It means that Benn now fights in Las Vegas having last boxed Orozco [who subsequently failed a test for PEDs] in Florida. The BBB of C and UKAD appeals are due to be heard next month, so Sims hopes Benn will be boxing back in the UK this year, and soon.
But first Benn needs to get by Dobson on February 3 at The Cosmopolitan. It is likely going to be a fire more sterile atmosphere than 70,000 divided but passionate fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, and Sims has been doing his homework.
“Yeah, he [Peter Dobson] is a decent fighter, I’ve watched what I can of him on YouTube, there isn’t loads of him but he’s quite a stocky sort-of fighter, he’s quite smart,” Sims said. “It doesn’t look like he’s on Conor Benn’s level. You won’t know until you get in there, you know what I mean? We’re away from home and you’re top of the bill in Las Vegas, so you know, it’s always a tricky fight over there. We’ll just see anyway when we get in there.”
