Conor Benn is back and ready to restart his welterweight campaign.

Benn (22-0, 14 KO’s) hasn’t boxed at 147lbs since stopping Chris van Heerden in April 2022. Since then, he has spent much of his time preparing for a cancelled 157lb catchweight fight with Chris Eubank Jnr and strenuously protesting his innocence after twice testing positive for the banned substance clomifene.

The saga continues to rumble on. The independent National Anti-Doping Panel lifted Benn’s provisional suspension but the British Boxing Board of Control and UK Anti-Doping lodged an appeal against that decision. The appeal has yet to be heard and Benn remains unlicensed in United Kingdom.

Benn boxed Rodolfo Orozco as a super welterweight in Orlando last September but will return to welterweight when he boxes unbeaten New Yorker, Peter Dobson, in Las Vegas on February 3rd. After that, he insists that he is more than ready for the biggest names and biggest occasions the division can offer. 

“This is how I’ve measured it. You’ve got a kid who’s come from no amateur experience. I ain’t crying about that by the way because I’m still a hell of a fighter. I’m not going, ‘Oh, feel sorry for me. I had no amateur experience and look how far I’ve come.’ No, that’s not where I’m going with this,” Benn told BoxingScene.com.

“I had no amateur experience and had to learn on big shows. That was a lot of platform for so early in my career. I made mistakes, but all of the mistakes I made, I made early on. Being on the big shows enables you to deal with pressure so it’s put me in good stead for now in terms of on the night.”

Getting used to big occasions is one thing. Being able to perform is another and Benn benefited from some outstanding matchmaking early in his career. Learning and improving against foreign opposition with glossy records before facing established, older fighters like Samuel Vargas, Adrian Granados, Chris Algieri and Chris Van Heerden. 

He was also constantly linked with fighters like Kell Brook, Adrien Broner and Amir Khan, well known but faded names that would have been sensible steps for his development but also ensured that his own name remained in the headlines. 

There has been a change during Benn’s absence from the ring. 

He believes his learning is over and providing he comes through Dobson, Benn wants the biggest possible fights. He has called out IBF champion, Jaron Ennis, and offered to welcome outstanding WBC super lightweight champion, Devin Haney, to the welterweight division, elite opposition against whom Benn would start as a significant underdog. With the bookies at least.

Despite his lack of activity, Benn is convinced that he is more than capable of mixing with the best names welterweight has to offer and believes that he can state his case using facts.

“In term of development, looks at Vergil Ortiz who people were saying was Pound-for Pound. Look at the fight with Samuel Vargas. I got rid of him in a round. It took Ortiz seven,” Benn told BoxingScene. “You’re talking Jaron Ennis fighting van Heerden. van Heerden was a late replacement and Ennis had an eight-week camp. Look how I got rid of him [Benn stopped the South African in two rounds in his final fight before the Eubank/clomifene saga started].

“When you wanna do the comparisons, I feel like us British fighters aren’t put on the pedestal as them but the reality is, my performances - when it’s put in front of me - I’ve delivered as much as they have.

“Everyone wants to give these guys praise but why is the British guy not put on that platform when I fought exactly the same opponent and done exactly the same thing - if not better - with more tenacity, more ferocity and more spite?

“A guy who had no amateur experience. Then you ask me why I think I’m ready for [Devin] Haney or ready for Ennis? That’s my measuring stick.”

Benn readily admits there have been times over the past year when he has been demoralized and demotivated but maintains that he continued to put in the work in the gym anyway.

He insists his desire to take on the best as soon as possible doesn’t indicate a determination to make up for lost time or a decision to simply get as much as he can, as quickly as he can from the sport.

“I’m able to learn and grow every single day in the gym,” he said. “The one thing about me is that I stay disciplined and stay on my grind. Even when I’ve had all this going on I stay in the gym and I use that as fuel to drive me, to motivate me and push me to be better.

“I’m not what you say I am, I am what I say I am and I continue to prove that I am what I say I am. That’s my mindset. Why do I feel like I’m up there? That’s why. That’s my measuring stick.”