Robert Smith, General Secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC), stands firm that welterweight contender Conor Benn has not cleared his name and should not be fighting this coming weekend.

Last year, Benn tested positive in a pair of tests for the banned substance clomifene. The drug testing drama led to the cancelation of his scheduled pay-per-view fight with Chirs Eubank Jr. - which was set to come off in October 2022.

In July, Benn's suspension was lifted by the National Anti-Doping Panel.

However, that decision has since been appealed by the BBBofC and UK Anti-Doping.

On Wednesday, it was announced that Benn would return to the ring on Saturday night as part of a Matchroom card being staged in Florida.

Benn's promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom, insists his boxer has been cleared.

Smith disagrees.

"Although it's a sport, we don't deal with teams, we deal with individuals," Smith told Talk Sport.

"And sometimes people look after themselves rather than the sport in general, which is slightly disappointing. I understand why they do it, but no I don't think he should be boxing. Personally, I don't think he should be boxing until this matter is cleared. Hopefully that'll be done as soon as possible.

"He hasn't cleared it (his name), a number of issues are still outstanding which everybody's aware of. We've decided to appeal a decision and once the appeal has taken place we'll take it on board from there. But when Eddie says he's cleared his name, according to us we haven't had an explanation of how the positive test came about, so I don't quite agree with Eddie on that one."

The goal for Hearn is to finalize a December fight between Benn and Eubank Jr. - even if it means taking the fight to a country outside of the UK.