LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Conor Benn will return to the WBC world rankings after the boxing body cleared him of intentional doping on Wednesday and said a “highly elevated consumption of eggs” was a reasonable explanation for failed tests last year.
Positive findings for “trace amounts of a fertility drug” led to welterweight Benn’s much-hyped catchweight fight in London with compatriot Chris Eubank Jr being called off in October.
The WBC said in a statement that Benn’s team had this month provided a detailed breakdown of his diet and consumption of supplements.
It found no conclusive evidence that Benn, 26, intentionally ingested the banned substance Clomiphene and no procedural failures.
“Benn’s documented and highly-elevated consumption of eggs during the times relevant to the sample collection, raised a reasonable explanation for the Adverse Finding,” the WBC said.
“The WBC Nutrition Committee will work with Mr. Benn’s team to design a nutrition program geared to avoid the risk of a future adverse finding caused by nutritional factors.”
The WBC said it would also raise with world anti-doping agency WADA its concern about Clomiphene as a food contaminant and the potential of false positives.
Benn remains under investigation by UKAD, Britain’s anti-doping body.
The Briton, whose father Nigel was a super-middleweight world champion, relinquished his licence with the British Boxing Board of Control after the Eubank fight was called off.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)
