Conor Benn obviously would welcome the fight that’s “personal” to him, a rescheduled domestic clash with Chris Eubank Jr., if Benn receives his British boxing license at the conclusion of the appellate process.
There is a lower-profile fight, one within his preferred division, on which Benn has set his sights in the event the more-profitable Eubank bout doesn’t come together again. England’s Benn wants to test himself in a 147-pound fight against Mario Barrios, who owns the WBC interim welterweight title.
Battling Barrios could prove to be even less realistic, however, than rearranging the Eubank bout because Barrios works with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions. Barring an unforeseen change in PBC’s business strategy, it seems unlikely that Barrios would box Benn, who is promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing.
Benn is, however, ranked fifth among the WBC’s welterweight contenders. Ilford’s Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) could move up in the WBC’s next ratings after defeating Peter Dobson (16-1, 9 KOs) by unanimous decision in a 12-round main event DAZN streamed Saturday from The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
“Listen, I’ll fight any man,” Benn told BoxingScene.com. “If it makes money, it makes sense. You know, not just for me, for everyone involved – the promotional companies. You know, it’s a business and we wanna give the fans the most exciting fights possible. So, I think, for me, 147 is where I wanna capture a world title. Barrios is a name that I’ve mentioned so many times. If we could make that fight next, then I’d be over the moon to make that fight. If not Barrios, then you know, we’ll see who’s there. We’ll see who wants to fight.”
Terence Crawford owns the WBC welterweight title, but boxing’s undisputed 147-pound champion could move up to the 154-pound division for his next fight. San Antonio’s Barrios (28-2, 18 KOs) beat Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas (27-6, 12 KOs) by unanimous decision to win the WBC interim championship September 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Benn, who beat Dobson at a contracted catch weight of 151 pounds, is not ranked in the top 15 by the IBF, WBA or WBO.
The 27-year-old Benn nevertheless might return to his home country for his next fight at some point in the summer. That’ll require the British Boxing Board of Control and its testing agency, UK Anti-Doping, to lose its appeal of the National Anti-Doping Panel’s decision last July to lift Benn’s suspension for twice testing positive for clomiphene, a banned substance, in 2022.
Failing those two tests administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association caused the cancelation of Eubank-Benn just two days before it was scheduled to take place in October 2022 at O2 Arena in London.
Benn has won two bouts in the United States over the past four months because his license remains revoked in the UK. The son of British boxing legend Nigel Benn still hopes to continue this level of activity in England.
“I’d like to get out four times this year,” Benn said, “but I know that’s not realistic because the fights that we wanna try and make are mega-fights. So, it’s hard because the mega-fights take time. They need full 12-week camps, a lot of media, so realistically I reckon three times this year. If I can go in the summer in a mega-fight – either against a Barrios, [Devin] Haney, [Jaron] Ennis, Eubank, any of them names this year – in summer and in winter would be great.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.