Conor Benn isn’t the most patient man in the world but he was forced to twiddle his thumbs and wait while the legal process played out.

Being called a drug cheat vexed him but with the highly ranked welterweight contender failing a prefight drug test ahead of his Chris Eubank Jr. showdown last year, he was hoping that his name would be fully cleared by the appropriate parties. Benn waited, waited, and waited some more. But, despite keeping his fingers crossed, Benn hasn’t been fully vindicated just yet by UKAD and the British Boxing Board of Control. More importantly, his domestic clash against Eubank appears to be the furthest thing from reality.

Instead of sulking, Benn has moved on. He recently wiped off some of the rust with a hard-fought 10-round decision against Rodolfo Orozco in September. Now, he’s going to return to the ring on February 3 in Las Vegas, in a fight with unbeaten Peter Dobson.

Benn would like to position himself for a major opportunity in 2024.

Jaron Ennis, Keith Thurman, and Terence Crawford are the usual suspects but Devin Haney, arbitrarily, has emerged as a viable option as well.

Earlier this month, at the Chase Center in San Francisco, the newly turned 25-year-old made his super lightweight debut against Regis Prograis. Although most were expecting him to have a relatively difficult time out there, Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) cruised, winning a lopsided decision.

At the moment, Haney is negotiating a potential defense against Ryan Garcia.

Pragmatically, after grabbing Prograis’ WBC title, Haney could sit back and get comfortable in his new weight class.

However, Haney is mulling the scenario of moving up to 147 by the end of next year. 

It was revealed that Haney weighed 165-pounds when he stepped in the ring with Prograis.

Becoming a three-division belt holder is salient to Haney’s bigger dreams but that would entail matchups with Crawford and Ennis.

Ultimately, Benn doesn’t bring any championship hardware to the table. But, golden trinkets aside, Benn simply wants to be a buoyant host. If Haney does decide that he wants to compete as a full-fledged welterweight, the 25-year-old has a young British star ready, willing, and able to show him around the division.

"I’ll welcome you to the 147 division,” Benn recently stated to Haney.