Though we know that true loyalty is as rare in boxing as it is in life, there are certain acts of loyalty that demand reciprocation. One such act, surely, is what Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom did for Conor Benn over the course of nine years.  

In April 2016, on the undercard of Anthony Joshua-Charles Martin, the ferocious but crude offspring of Nigel Benn was unleashed by the promoter into the world of professional boxing. This was just the start, Hearn said.

The end came suddenly on Friday when it was announced that Zuffa Boxing had signed the now world-famous Benn, reportedly on a one-fight deal, for an eight-figure sum.

On the surface, there should be nothing surprising about this; boxer attains high status and sells their pulling power to the highest bidder is a familiar tale, after all.

But what Hearn did for Benn during those nine years makes the fighter’s decision to leave truly extraordinary, even when judged by boxing’s perennially low standards.

There would have been significant financial cost attached to Benn’s early years as the fighter and his team chipped away at the numerous rough edges while being rewarded with high-profile platforms against handpicked opposition on Matchroom’s most lavish events. 

By 2022, thanks to some skilled matchmaking, savvy negotiating, and Benn’s own improvement, the fighter was a world-ranked welterweight on the cusp of a title shot. But Matchroom had something even bigger, and more lucrative, in mind for their burgeoning charge: A multi-million-pound domestic showcase against Chris Eubank Jnr, the son of Nigel’s greatest enemy.

Set for October that year, it immediately captured the public’s attention. But late in July, before the contest had been formally confirmed, Benn submitted a sample to VADA from which the banned substance clomifene would be discovered.

Hearn would soon be informed of the failed test but did not expose his fighter. Even when Benn failed another test, conducted five weeks afterwards and with the Eubank Jnr promotion in full swing, Hearn stayed quiet.

When the news that Benn had failed those tests became a full-blown scandal, the promoter rallied behind both Benn and the fight to rescue the event. There was a reason for the devotion, of course. Significant money had already been spent, and far greater sums needed to be recouped. 

Hearn’s efforts to salvage, as he threatened to find an alternative commission to the British Boxing Board of Control, soiled Matchroom’s reputation almost as much as Benn’s was by those dirty tests in the first place.

Hearn did not change his stance, however. Benn is innocent, he promised. Several months later, when Benn was provisionally suspended by UKAD, Hearn stood tall in his defiance. Benn is innocent, he reaffirmed, again and again.

Plenty of others did not feel the same way. Benn struggled to cope; his life was in tatters. Yet Hearn, despite growing ever pricklier when questioned about Benn, dutifully mapped out an escape route for his man.

Fights in America were arranged despite the situation remaining unresolved in the UK where the Board and UKAD pursued their case against Benn. Through all the lawsuits and the loopholes that eventually led to Benn being permitted to fight in the UK again, Hearn continued to tease the possibility of that Eubank Jnr showdown. 

Everyone now knows what was to eventually follow. Two huge fights, each set in the same London soccer stadium. Eubank would win the first, and three long years after the failed tests, Benn would claim victory in the second against a man so weight-drained he was barely recognizable, thanks to the contract which Matchroom had overseen. 

The superstar that Hearn had long promised was born.

In December, at the WBC Convention, Hearn’s representatives performed another miracle when they persuaded the sanctioning body to install Benn as their mandatory welterweight contender, all but guaranteeing a title shot for a fighter who hadn’t competed in the weight class for almost four years. And just last week, Benn was front and center of the marketing material to announce a five-year extension to Matchroom’s broadcast deal with DAZN. Elsewhere, Benn was finalising his own deal with Zuffa Boxing’s Dana White, Hearn’s promotional rival. 

Hearn, in a rare display of humility, would blame himself for Benn’s departure. “I felt that the loyalty that we’ve shown would never ever put us in this position,” he told IFLTV on Friday, “and I just felt that I never really needed to push Conor Benn to sign a new contract previously, and I probably could have got him to sign a new contract previously.”

Benn had every right to make his decision, of course. Like the root of Hearn’s devotion to him, money was the motivator. Whether he’ll ever again find the grass as green as it was under the protective Matchroom umbrella remains to be seen, however.