Boxing Thread

[ICTChris]

 

 

[gannonball]

Just heard the Eddie Press conference, makes no mention of why and mentions a postponement instead.

[Hoose Rice]

Eddie Hearns a fuckin' tosspot. 

[Shandon Par]

They knew about this weeks ago. Did they just hope the BBofC wouldn’t find out about the test?

[Bairnardo]

They knew about this weeks ago. Did they just hope the BBofC wouldn’t find out about the test?

If they did, then that's why Eubank has been all over social media making a big show about eating shite and not worrying about the weight.

[Rob1885]

If they did, then that's why Eubank has been all over social media making a big show about eating shite and not worrying about the weight.

He was weighing 161 pounds today apparently so looked like he was gonna make it tbf.

[Cowshed Chris]

Now makes sense why Eubank snr was so against the fight. No contaminated meat excuse for Benn whom I have been a huge fan of. Absolutely shocked he's a drug cheat but no reason at all for this particular drug to be in his system. Banged to rights.

Was really looking forward to the fight too, bitterly disappointing, but it would have been a complete sham if it went ahead following this news. Strongly rumoured that the promoters were doing everything they could to keep the fight on and it was DAZN that ultimately ordered the plug to be pulled due to the terrible PR it would have brought. Things really aren't going well for Matchroom at the moment.

[Bairnardo]

Connor Benn following Eddie in the "theres always a tweet" game...

[ICTChris]

[IrishBhoy]

A doped up fighter that gets caught by way of a positive drug test has literally no other option available to them other than to deny all allegations vehemently. Hearn and Benn will be hoping that these strongly worded denials will be enough to muddy the waters, desperately hoping that nothing else comes out the woodwork from VADA or any other anti doping agency and they can continue along the ‘adverse finding’ line that they have been eager to parrot, rather than the more accurate ‘failed drug test’ line. 
 

I’ve been aware of Clomid/Clomifene for a good few years, and its only purpose in males is to stimulate a mass increase of testosterone, almost always after a cycle of anabolic steroid use. A panel of David Blunkett and Stevie Wonder (or any blind man), could see that Benns physique has undertaken a drastic change in the last 4 years or so. I remember the Peynaud fight from 2017 when he got floored twice, ultimately doing just enough to take a points decision in the end. If the positive test hadn’t came to light I probably wouldn’t be so sceptical, but looking back at his build in 2017 and the power he carried then, and comparing it to his most recent couple of fights he looks like a different man, quite literally. 
 

Benn, Hearn and all the team around him are going to be screaming that he’s a clean fighter till the cows come home. But let’s remember almost every fighter found to be a drug cheat has acted the exact same way. Lance Armstrong fought allegations of drug use for near enough a decade until he was found to be the biggest cheat in the history of any sport ever.
 

There is no value in admitting to drug use because that nails you as a cheat, your name is tainted forever and the shadow will never leave. Denying it the way guys like Whyte, Fury, Povetkin, Canelo and many, many more have done, makes it easier for the boxing public to forget and move on. Some people will always believe they cheated but enough people are willing to think they are clean, even when the evidence points to the complete opposite. 

[kiddy]

This happened back in August, yet it took til 2 days before it takes place to break?

[IrishBhoy]

11 minutes ago, kiddy said:

This happened back in August, yet it took til 2 days before it takes place to break?

Remember that the next time someone in the industry says ‘the health of the fighters is the only thing that matters’. Eddie Hearn has made himself look like a complete fool here, he had so much to say about Miller and Pascal when they tested positive before fights against someone he was promoting. Now it’s one of his main guys that tests positive he’s willing to dismiss a failed VADA test, which cost the promotion about £50 thousand quid to have them doing the testing, but hailing UKAD who don’t even test for Clomid . His reputation should be in pieces after this. 

Edited October 7, 2022 by IrishBhoy

[kiddy]

Taylor bins Davidson & hires McNally.

Josh Taylor teams up with trainer Joe McNally after parting ways with Ben Davison - BBC Sport

[Shandon Par]

Hope Taylor comes back motivated and back to his horrible old self and smashes up Catterall. Catterall seems to have won an army of online fans but I agree with Taylor that he was also shite. Jab. Hide. Telegraph a haymaker. Coming in to camp at 13 stone it’s no wonder Taylor clearly had nothing in the tank and couldn’t work out how to adjust to some basic stuff coming from Catterall. 

[Bairnardo]

1 hour ago, Shandon Par said:

Hope Taylor comes back motivated and back to his horrible old self and smashes up Catterall. Catterall seems to have won an army of online fans but I agree with Taylor that he was also shite. Jab. Hide. Telegraph a haymaker. Coming in to camp at 13 stone it’s no wonder Taylor clearly had nothing in the tank and couldn’t work out how to adjust to some basic stuff coming from Catterall. 

I think seeing the state of Taylor in that documentary lent at least some credence to the fairly routine excuse of "oh I wasnt really on it in camp" etc. Really wouldn't expect someone of his calibre to look so lacklustre twice. That said, im never a big fan of a trainer change. Only caveat to that in this case would be that iv never been sold on Davison.

[Shandon Par]

5 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

I think seeing the state of Taylor in that documentary lent at least some credence to the fairly routine excuse of "oh I wasnt really on it in camp" etc. Really wouldn't expect someone of his calibre to look so lacklustre twice. That said, im never a big fan of a trainer change. Only caveat to that in this case would be that iv never been sold on Davison.

There may have been some sort of incentive to use Davison when moving to MTK.

[kiddy]

Allegations of Benn failing another, earlier test for the same substance emerging in the press.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-11304663/amp/Probe-claim-Benn-failed-drugs-test-bombshell-throws-future-Eubank-bout-doubt.html

[ICTChris]

Benn will check into rehab for being addicted to women's fertility drugs.  It's a slippery slope, one minute you are dabbling in it before you know it you are crushing up your wife's contraceptive pills and snorting them.

[Detournement]

It's strange because he's always kissing his Da and he is dead against PED use.

NIGEL BENN is happy to admit he regularly used recreational drugs during his hell-raising days as world super-middleweight king.
But the man they called the Dark Destroyer is bristling at stories he dabbled with steroids and is determined to clear his name.

Benn says the accusation has come from the family of Gerald McClellan, the American tragically paralysed and blinded following their brutal world title fight 15 years ago.

Benn said a solicitor acting for the McClellan family contacted his agent, Kevin Lueshing, to say they had found blood on the boots the American wore in that fight - which contained traces of steroids.

Benn groaned: "This is 15 years after the fight mind you, and that is where I struggle to take all this in.

"They are saying it wasn't his blood, but blood with a steroid or some performance-enhancing drug in it. And if it wasn't Gerald's, then it must be yours.

"Their solicitor contacted Kevin. And they're thinking of going public with it. That's why I'm speaking out now.

"I'm not letting something like this happen. So many people say I'll defend it afterwards. No, I'm defending my name right now. I'll say this only once - I have never, ever, taken performance-enhancing drugs.

"If you said I took recreational drugs, yeah, I'd put my hands up. If they said they'd found a spliff in my urine, then it's possible. But that's not performance-enhancing, and they couldn't say they'd found cocaine, because I've never done that.

"Even finding traces of marijuana would be a shock, because before a fight I'd go away for 8-10 weeks and train hard, eat healthy, and stay away from all the bad stuff.

"But performance-enhancing drugs? That's not me, and I'm not going to let my name be tarnished like Ben Johnson and those guys."



BRUTAL ... Benn v McClellan was one of the most savage everBenn, 47, is even more determined to avoid that sort of smear because he became a born-again Christian three years ago, going down on his knees in front of wife Carolyne and confessing a multitude of sins. He did the same thing in front of his children, his pastor, and the congregation at his local church.

Despite living in Spain, he is now a frequent visitor to prisons and churches in the UK, preaching a message of repentance and forgiveness.

He swears he left nothing out of his confession - owning up to orgies and a string of extra-marital affairs - and refuses to be branded a liar.

He said: "I had many affairs, had children outside wedlock. I hurt the woman I've loved dearly for 16 years. I confessed that to my wife, my children and my dad.

"What I had to confess to Carolyne - if you ever saw a black man turn white, that was me. And now any lie is something we couldn't live with.

"If I can say all those things do you think I'm going to say 'Oh hang on a minute, I forgot to mention taking steroids?' You think I could keep something like that up my sleeve?

"I loved fighting and the lifestyle, which is why I got so caught up in it. But I choose the other side.


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"If I can get someone off drugs, help an alcoholic, or repair a broken marriage. That is my passion now. God is using me as his humble servant, me, Nigel Benn. It's a far greater sense of achievement than anything I did in boxing."

Benn's sense of sadness is obvious as he recalls the night he stopped McClellan in the 10th and ended up alongside him on a stretcher, battered to the point of near-collapse.

He said: "I met Gerald three years ago, when me and Kevin arranged a fund-rasing dinner for him. Before then I didn't have the compassion I have now.

"It never troubled me before that night because he said he was going to damage me. He said that to my dad. I was put out by that. So it never bothered me.

"We were both over 21 and knew what we were doing.

"But me and Kevin got together and raised a lot of money — around $220,000. And we didn't take a penny for costs or anything. And when I saw him, my whole attitude changed. I saw this guy in a wheelchair who was paralysed, practically blind, 80 per cent deaf, and he kept telling me to speak louder because he couldn't hear me.

"Then he said 'Is this the man who did this to me?' I was heartbroken. I was in bits, a blubbering mess.

"I feel sad it was only when I met him that it dawned on me that he was in a dark place.

"So praise God that I was able to do something for him. Two black guys from the East End of London put on a show at the Grosvenor in Mayfair. Hello! To come from the streets and watch the stars turn out. That was something."

Benn has his own theory about why the steroid claims have suddenly surfaced. But he warned: "If they are thinking of trying to use it for publicity or to try to get money from us they will be disappointed.

"I pray for them but if they keep up with this I'll sue for defamation."

 

[Shandon Par]

The British Boxing.Board of Control are funded by the scraps the big promoters throw them. Unless they are looking for WBC ranking points the big promoters might use the UK Anti Doping agency. They don’t test for certain things VADA test for. Connor Benn probably never had a drugs test before this one as drug testing has to be paid for and the money just isn’t there in the smaller shows.

Hard to see a way to clean it all up other than big fees/taxes on the massive earners like AJ, Fury and.. it runs pretty dry after that. The board of control don’t have the wealth and power to really stand up to the likes of Hearn and Warren. 

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by Shandon Par