Frank Warren has praised the British Boxing Board of Control for intervening and banning Conor Benn’s fight with Chris Eubank Jr.
Benn returned a positive test following a voluntary anti-doping test (VADA) for traces of clomiphene in his system, which is a banned substance by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The 26-year-old’s UK doping tests came back negative but the BBBoC released a statement saying they would not sanction the fight.
Both fighters still want the fight to continue and Matchroom chief Eddie Hearn is exploring options to make that happen.
Promoter Frank Warren joined talkSPORT Drive and gave his assessment of the situation.
He said: “What’s happening here is that both boxers are going to make a lot of money and can see that’s not going to happen.
“They trained hard. Eubank Jr takes a calculated risk saying “I don’t care if he took it, I think I can beat him”. That’s where he is.
“The promoter wants it to continue, but it’s not in his interest or in the interest of boxing.
“The council has shown integrity here if the fact is that he tested positive. No one has denied this, but ultimately why did you sign up for VADA if you didn’t need it and relied on UKAD testing?
“Why spend money to have them tested?”
When asked if he would retire the fight, Warren replied, “Yes, I would. If something goes wrong, what are you going to do? Where are you going with this?
“Everybody was worried about it in the sport anyway. Conor is gaining weight, Chris Eubank has to empty to gain that weight. He is 33 years old, he is not a young person.
“The big problem in boxing when you’ve had problems, most of the time it’s dehydration.
“God forbid if something went wrong, how do you justify it?”
Even though neither Benn nor Eubank Jr are among Warren’s fighters, he was able to provide unique insight into how things work and how the BBBoC will approach this.
He said: “The Board of Control obviously has a real concern about this, and I can understand where they are coming from.
“There has to be some integrity in there, they enforced the rules according to their rule book.
“He says if a fight is to the detriment of boxing then they will remove the sanction. It can be for any reason.
“I guess they enforce this because of the VADA test.”