There was no way the taint of two failed drug tests was going to prevent Conor Benn from letting his schadenfreude known to the world.
The embattled welterweight was quick to add his two cents to the conversation after his well-known nemesis, Chris Eubank Jr., suffered a surprising fourth round knockout loss at the hands of Liam Smith in their middleweight bout Saturday night in Manchester, England.
Benn was originally supposed to take on Eubank in a 157-pound catchweight bout in October, a matchup that captivated the British sporting public because the fighters’ fathers, Eubank Sr. and Nigel Benn, were responsible for British boxing’s most fervid rivalry in the early 1990s. But it was discovered a few days out from the fight that Benn had tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing drug, clomfiene. It was later revealed that Benn had tested positive for the same substance earlier in the summer.
Even with ongoing investigation with the World Boxing Council and UK Anti-Doping, Benn has recently made proclamations attesting to his innocence. Benn apparently is confident that a 270-page report that his lawyers submitted to the WBC will eventually vindicate him.
With Eubank’s loss, Benn could not resist needling his adversary by uploading a tweet that featured an old video of Naseem Hamed imploring Eubank to retire. The video was accompanied by the caption, “Oh, man, @chriseubankjr it’s a good job you didn’t fight me. You’d last two rounds at 160. [Yawning emoji, snoozing emoji].”
On his Instagram story, Benn uploaded a video showing himself smiling and laughing with his father immediately after Eubank's knockout loss.
“What do you say dad, wouldn’t have gone past two would it?” Benn said as he directed the camera over to his father, who then began to cackle.
Benn followed up with several other posts on his Instagram story, mainly showing various social media users insisting Benn would have run through Eubank.
Eubank will likely pursue a rematch with Smith for later this year.
As for Benn, his promoter Eddie Hearn has repeatedly stressed that his client will return to the ring within the first six months of 2023, while also insisting that they would prefer first to have a verdict from the WBC.