{"id":498663,"date":"2026-02-23T10:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498663\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T10:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:40:14","slug":"matchroom-ceo-says-conor-benn-only-cares-about-himself-following-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498663\/","title":{"rendered":"Matchroom CEO says Conor Benn ‘only cares about himself’ following split"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith has taken Conor Benn<\/a>\u2019s departure as a \u201cpersonal\u201d bump in the road, believing that the 29-year-old only cares about himself.<\/p>\n

It was announced on Friday that Benn has signed a one-fight deal with Dana White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing<\/a>, ending his long-time promotional relationship with Eddie Hearn\u2019s Matchroom.<\/p>\n

Since making his professional debut under the Matchroom banner in 2016, the Ilford man crafted a 24-1 record and is now considered one of the biggest names in British boxing.<\/p>\n

Along the way, though, there has been no shortage of pitfalls and controversies, with Benn most notably testing positive for clomifene on two separate occasions in 2022.<\/p>\n

As a result of his failed tests, \u2018The Destroyer\u2019 was no longer permitted to enter his showdown with Chris Eubank Jr, who he later faced in two encounters last year.<\/p>\n

During this time, too, Hearn and Smith played a key role in rehabilitating Benn\u2019s image, allowing him to twice fight in America ahead of his two blockbuster clashes with Eubank.<\/p>\n

Their first middleweight contest, in April, saw Benn lose a unanimous decision, before exacting his revenge over the weight-restricted Brit<\/a> last November.<\/p>\n

Now, the WBC\u2019s leading welterweight contender looks to test the waters with White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing, with Matchroom\u2019s Smith telling IFL TV<\/a> that he believes the boxer only cares about himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had an up and down relationship with Conor. And Conor cares about one person: himself. He doesn\u2019t care about what people have done for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my opinion. For me, it\u2019s more personal than business, because of everything I went through over those years, with the Eubank fight. It cuts a bit different.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Benn is ranked No.1 with the WBC at 147lbs, it remains to be seen whether Zuffa will choose to recognise such a status, given their attempt to marginalise boxing\u2019s sanctioning bodies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matchroom Boxing CEO Frank Smith has taken Conor Benn\u2019s departure as a \u201cpersonal\u201d bump in the road, believing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-498663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}