Conor Benn has gone through a lot lately, most of his own doing.
Heading into his showdown against Chris Eubank Jr., Benn failed a pre-fight drug test. His subsequent suspension has been a strange one. While he’s been barred from fighting in the UK, Benn was eventually cleared to fight in the US.
This coming weekend, he’ll continue to fight several miles away from home when he takes on Peter Dobson at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 27-year-old can’t afford to have any sloppy showings or hiccups. In the sport of boxing, winning, at times, isn’t enough. Meaning, he knows that he has to show his worth. Although he’s giving Dobson his undivided attention, he isn’t unnerved about what his opponent brings to the table.
Looking ahead has a tendency to end badly for fighters but Benn (22-0, 14 KOs) believes there’s too much on the line. Currently, the welterweight division has somewhat of a logjam at the top of it. Of course, Jaron Ennis holds the IBF strap but Terence Crawford is known as the division’s top dog.
At the moment, Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) is standing near the end of his finish line. He’s admitted that he doesn’t have much left in the tank and wants to walk away from the game on his own terms. In a perfect world, the ideal way to call it a career would be a brazen win over Canelo Alvarez. That showdown, however, seems unlikely.
If Crawford has nothing else going on, Benn is raising his hand hoping and praying that they can meet in the center of the ring. No audacious trash talk will be used by the normally loquacious Benn. Instead, he has nothing but respect for Crawford and simply wants to test his skills against someone he considers the best.
“We could make the Crawford fight next,” Benn told ESNEWS during a recent interview. “You want to challenge yourself against the best.”