05 April 2023 , 20:09
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Chris Eubank Jr's promoter Kalle Sauerland has slammed the British Boxing Board of Control amid continuing talks for a rescheduling of his fight with Conor Benn.
The pair were due to square off at the O2 Arena last October before Benn failed two drugs tests, and he is still yet to prove his innocence with the governing body. Sauerland admitted in an exclusive chat with Mirror Fighting today that he is still "flirting" with the concept of rescheduling the fight in Abu Dhabi, with June 3 the rumoured date.
Eubank Jr's licence with the Board will be in jeopardy if he chooses to push on with the bout, where he would be facing Benn who currently holds no licence after failing to renew his paperwork last year. But Sauerland has insisted that he will be making a very compelling case to them if a deal for the bout is agreed.
"It's a flirtation and it's gone rather quiet," Sauerland said of fight talks between he and Benn's promoter Eddie Hearn. "We're working on putting the final touches on Liam Smith. It has been a flirtation that's gone very quiet so I don't know, things can speed up a lot in boxing."
"Let's put this question into perspective," Sauerland replied when asked if he was concerned about the risk taking such a controversial fight would be to Eubank Jr's future as a licensed fighter. "This is the same British Board that didn't tell us that his opponent was positive so who's putting who into risk?
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"Were they putting him at risk by letting him spar, by letting him make weight [Eubank Jr made a career-low 157lb for the bout at the age of 33]. Couldn't I say that they put him at risk last summer from the dates of maybe August 20 until the end of September, a good six-week period?
"So they sat on information that we should have been party to so we could get contracts. Morally, as a licence holder we should have been party to that information. He trained, went into sparring and believe me I've seen accidents, terrible accidents in sparring and he was put into those situations.
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"He was training for the fight of his life, putting himself through the mill, making weight, sparring but everyone knew, didn't they? They knew that fight weren't happening. So why not come and say 'look guy's there's an issue, we don't think this fight is going to take place'? We would have gone off, found another opponent and probably boxed in the O2 on October 8 against another opponent."
And Sauerland has vowed to make a particularly strongly worded case for why Eubank Jr should be allowed to fight abroad in the case that the fight is made. Benn is still without a licence in the UK, and his rival would need to apply for authorisation to fight in another jurisdiction or run the risk of having his British licence blocked.
"When you ask me whether I'm worried about the British Board and stuff, first of all there isn't an application to fight in the UAE because there is no deal to fight in the UAE," he insisted, before declaring that "If that time comes, then we will make our argument very clearly."