THERE is one man in boxing who never takes it on the chin — and that is Eddie Hearn.
Even after his fighter, Conor Benn, failed a drug test and caused the postponement of tomorrow’s fight with Chris Eubank Jr, the promoter had the bare-faced cheek to point the finger of blame at the British Boxing Board of Control.
Even by boxing’s snake-belly standards, this was low.
News of Benn testing positive for Clomifene — a drug which boosts testosterone — emerged on Wednesday, swiftly followed by the BBBofC announcing their refusal to sanction the fight.
Yet it was not until after 27 hours of furious wriggling that Hearn, and Eubank Jr’s promoter Kalle Sauerland, finally threw in the towel and called off the whole farce.
That came in a statement which claimed the Board of Control’s were "procedurally flawed and without due process".
Hearn claimed there would be "no further statement". Then staged a press conference. Then refused to take any questions.
Then blamed the media for reporting what he had told them the previous day — that he would seek an injunction against the Board and approach foreign commissions to preside over the fight.
This is a sport which operates like the Wild West, but where the outlaws seem genuinely stunned when the Sheriff dares to flex his muscles.
The Board was almost bankrupted by a lengthy legal process over Tyson Fury’s failed drug test but it has beefed up substantially since and is now capable of staring down major promoters such as Matchroom boss Hearn.
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Benn had failed a test with the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) but had passed tests with UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) — which forms part of Hearn’s argument about a lack of "due process".
Yet, hilariously, footage emerged of a recent interview with Hearn, after a failed drug test for another fighter, in which the promoter asked: “What is the point of signing up for drug testing if, when you fail, everyone says ‘oh don’t worry about it, just let him fight’?
“And the argument of ‘well it’s all right with UKAD’, it’s totally irrelevant. You’ve signed up for drug testing with VADA, the best testing agency, in my opinion, in the sport.”
This elevated hypocrisy and contradiction into an art form.
Benn vs Eubank was always a controversial freak show - two fighters cashing in on the fame of their fathers, Nigel and Chris Jr, in a catchweight contest which saw Eubank Jr slimming down to potentially dangerous levels and Benn beefing up, with some apparently illegal help.
So had Hearn got his way and staged the fight, despite Benn’s failed drug test, and either man had suffered serious injury, the ramifications for British boxing would have been vast, even terminal.
Yet Hearn, Sauerland and the two fighters had been due to hold a media conference in Canary Wharf on Thursday — only for that to be put back by several hours as the promoters scrambled for a solution.
In the meantime, fighters due to appear on the undercard were left milling around in a Canary Wharf hotel lobby, starving to make their respective weight limits, not knowing whether or not they would be fighting on Saturday.
These included Galal Yafai, Britain’s sole boxing gold medallist at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
The Brummie flyweight could never have imagined his hard-earned gong would lead to spending a day kicking his heels in an over-crowded hotel lobby listening to boxing journalists loudly interviewing each other.
Another undercard fighter, Lyndon Arthur, only heard news of the postponement from the assembled media at 4pm — then immediately went to the lobby bar and ordered himself a large brandy.
Benn’s actions may have scuppered a £25million fight between the sons of two famous fathers but these guys, fighting for relative peanuts after brutal training regimes, will have felt the cancellation most keenly.
When Hearn arrived for that nonsensical press conference, at which the press weren’t allowed to confer, he started with an Essex-boy quip.
“I was very tempted to slip out the back door for a beer but I wanted to come and see you guys,” he said, to stony silence.
Mate, know your audience.
Hearn claimed he had taken the decision to postpone the fight in the "best interests of boxing".
Which begged the question "then why hadn’t it been in the best interests of boxing 24 hours earlier, when the story broke? Or a couple of weeks ago, when Benn’s failed drug test is believed to have been taken?"
Which are two of the many potential questions which ensured that no questions would be allowed.
Hearn disappeared soon after in a Rolls Royce and will now be looking forward to staging Benn-Eubank at a later date — perhaps in his new favoured destination of Abu Dhabi — for a shedload more cash.
He ducks and weaves life’s punches better than Floyd Mayweather Jr, this shameless man.
