Conor Benn will learn the outcome of key hearing by the end of THIS WEEK

Conor Benn will learn the outcome of a key hearing into his anti-doping case by the end of this week.

Mail Sport understands the fighter’s legal team, led by Mike Morgan, appeared before the National Anti-Doping Panel in a video call on Monday to settle where jurisdiction lies in a saga that has rumbled on for nine months since we first revealed Benn tested positive for clomifene in July and September 2022.

The focus of Benn’s defence at this stage in the process is believed to centre on whether he exists outside of UK Anti-Doping’s remit, having relinquished his British Boxing Board of Control licence at the height of the fallout last October. 

There has also been ambiguity and confusion around whether UKAD can rule on the samples, as they were collected by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association.

If Morgan’s arguments prove successful, with the independent National Anti-Doping Panel brought in to hear this aspect of the case, it could free Benn to push ahead with plans to fight Chris Eubank Jr later this year. Such an outcome would be viewed as hugely contentious within the sport.

The focus of Benn’s defence at this stage in the process is believed to centre on whether he exists outside of UKAD’s remit, having relinquished his British Boxing Board of Control licence

A separate strand of Benn’s defence, which has been co-ordinated by the executive coach Rene Carayol, is orientated around the science of how the banned substance came to be in his system. 

If Monday’s hearing goes against Benn, it is understood they will argue the existence of evidence that shows the metabolites of clomifene in Benn’s samples were consistent with food contamination rather than oral ingestion of the drug. Those claims would be tested in a separate hearing.

A verdict on Monday’s hearing is believed to be imminent. Benn, who is facing a possible two-year ban after being provisionally suspended by UKAD in March, denies any wrongdoing.