Conor Benn credits his trainer, Tony Sims, for keeping him motivated and preventing him from walking away from the sport.

Benn, 23-0 (14 KOs), will finally fight Chris Eubank Jr, 34-3 (25 KOs), in a middleweight grudge match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday night. The fight headlines Ring Magazine’s first ever boxing card and the event will be streamed on DAZN PPV.

Benn, 28, turned over with very little amateur experience but his enthusiasm and aggression made up for any technical shortcomings and he began to steadily improve.

That momentum came to a grinding halt when he failed a pair of drug tests conducted by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) before a proposed October 2022 catch weight fight with Eubank Jr.

Benn has vehemently declared his innocence since news of the failed tests broke but as his legal case roared on in the UK, he obtained a licence from the Texas State Athletic Commission and took his show on the road to America.

In September 2023 he reappeared in Orlando and there was plenty of defiance in both his words and actions as he pounded out a ten round decision over Rodolfo Orozco.

By the time he returned to America to fight Peter Dobson in Las Vegas the following February, Benn concedes that the ongoing saga had taken its toll.

Although he battled his way to a unanimous decision over the New Yorker, his trademark ferocity was missing.

As he sat in his dressing room having his bandages removed, Benn readily admits that he began to wonder why he was bothering.

He thanks Sims for keeping him invested until, last November, the independent National AntI-Doping Panel (NADP) cleared him of any wrongdoing in relation to the two failed tests and cleared him to return to competition in the UK.

“Tony got in my head,” Benn told The Ring.

“I mean, look at the [Dobson] fight. Just watch it. Not arsed at all about what's coming back. ‘There’s no way you can beat me. I don’t even know why I’m fighting this fight. Yeah, it's great to headline in Vegas but I'm on the run.’ And that was how I felt in my heart.

“I went back to the changing room straight after the Dobson fight and fighting in Vegas. I don't even know if I want to fight anymore,” he continued.

“Ask the majority of people in this room who are in my corner. I didn't know if I wanted to fight anymore.

“My trainer is what carried me on because I wasn't interested in fighting. I promise you, I wasn't interested.”

Rather than forcing himself to go through the motions whilst he waited for his case to be finally resolved, Benn retreated to the gym and made sure that he would be ready to hit the ground running.

No sooner had he received the ruling than he was presented with two options that instantly reignited his desire.

At the time, there was talk that Benn faced a tough decision over whether to target WBC welterweight champion, Mario Barrios, or continue the feud with Eubank Jr. In reality, there was only ever choice.

“That was a scary place for me to be because it's all I know,” he said of the months he spent waiting to receive clarity on his career.

“So for that to be taken away from me, I’d let them win. That was what kept me going. The stubbornness and the sort of, what, ‘You think I'm going to let you win?’ Let you guys win and take away what I love to do? I can't let them take away what I love to do.

“When I won the case and was cleared, I then started to think maybe it is still there because I still love fighting, I’m just hating all the noise around it.”