Less than a week after the postponement of Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn, Eddie Hearn shed some light on what went on behind the scenes.
Speaking on The DAZN Boxing Show, the Matchroom boss took the opportunity to address the situation regarding the British Boxing Board of Control's decision to withdraw their sanctioning two days prior to the scheduled fight date.
"It’s a very difficult situation when you’re in it, this was a problem shared by the entire promotion and the commission," Hearn said.
"I don’t like the phrase ‘It was kept from people’, it wasn’t kept from anyone, ultimately the commission who ruled whether the fight takes place or not was aware of this situation from the get-go.
"There’s information about the testing, the amounts, that will come to light which I can’t really comment on because Conor Benn’s got a big fight on his hands.
"All I’ll say is that we’ve been here before with Dillian Whyte, everyone wrote him off, everyone said his career was over, and it turned out he was completely innocent."
Hearn went into further detail about the options that were presented, saying that Eubank and his team were "willing to move forward with the fight."
"This wasn’t something anyone tried to brush under the carpet, this is a testing programme that is implemented by us, the promotion, and is not acknowledged by the governing body," he said.
"So we had to go through a process to determine what would be the way forward and ultimately the British Boxing Board of Control decided not to sanction the fight, from there legally we get the opportunity to challenge that to beat it or to use another commission, we decided not to because we didn’t feel like the best interests of boxing could be taken forward.
"You will see from various bits of information from the testing, the opponent, the opponent’s team, the promotional team, they were in a position where having reviewed this testing process and all the facts, were willing to move forward with the fight.
"Ultimately that is in the hands of the commission, we’re not the governing body, we’re not the commission."
While Hearn noted that he respects the commission's decision, he stressed his belief that Benn wasn't "allowed due process in this instance."
"Conor Benn is not suspended at the moment, so ultimately he’s cleared to fight, but I understand the situation," Hearn said.
"Not many know the actual facts, we take the criticism on the chin and we went through the process at the time, everybody was alerted and ultimately you leave these decisions in the hands of the commission and they made the decision, a decision which could have been challenged, but we decided not to, we understand it was right not to and now we leave all in the information in the hands of Conor Benn’s lawyers who has a big fight on his hands and you will see a lot of information come to light where I believe you’ll change your mind."