Matchroom Boxing executive Frank Smith indicates that his company is confident of getting a deal done for a middleweight fight between rivals Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. - which is targeted for Abu Dhabi in September.

The contest is eyed for a September 23 event at Etihad Arena.

“We’ve been back and forward to Abu Dhabi over the last few months, working through plans with the DCT, and the aim is to deliver an event on September 23 at Etihad Arena," Smith told The National.

“Hopefully within the next week or so we’ll be able to get something up and running. But they’re the discussions right now, and the focus for us is to bring the Eubank-Benn fight over.

“I’m very confident that that’s the fight we’re going to be able to deliver. There’s work to be done – as I said, we’re still working through the detail with the DCT – but I’m very confident we’ll be able to get that fight over the line for that date.”

Benn and Eubank were scheduled to collide last October at the O2 Arena in London. The fight was called off during fight week, after UK outlets revealed that Benn had tested positive for a performance enhancing drug.

When the fight fell apart, Eubank finalized a deal to face former world champion Liam Smith in January. Smith pulled off a stunner by knocking Eubank out in four rounds.

Eubank exercised an immediate rematch clause, with the second bout scheduled to take place next month. The fight became delayed when Smith withdrew with a training camp injury.

Once the Smith rematch was delayed, Matchroom approached Eubank to reignite talks for the fight with Benn.

While Benn was cleared earlier this year by the World Boxing Council, he is still prohibited from fighting in the UK by the British Boxing Board of Control and UK-Anti Doping. The BBBoC have warned their licensed boxers of potential consequences if they accept a fight with Benn on foreign soil.

Smith explains that a deal for Benn-Eubank would have to be reached sooner than later.

“We need to deliver it this week in order to put together a successful event, especially from a tourism perspective. It gives us 12-13 weeks to really fill out and build out packages to bring people over from the UK particularly; we need a long enough lead time to allow people to plan. That’s the focus for us and why the time frames are important," Smith said.

“We’re going to have to hit targets and bring tourists over, and we need the ability and the time to do that.”