Conor Benn has broken his silence on being removed from the WBC's January rankings due to a failure to enrol in their drug testing program.
Benn was ranked as high as No.5 in the governing body's welterweight rankings, but was taken out after didn't join their 'Clean Boxing Program' which is supported by VADA.
He has said that he is now in the process of being enrolled to the program, and voiced his support for keeping the sport clean.
Benn has been involved in UKAD's anti-doping scheme which tests randomly year-round, and insists his removal from the WBC's rankings is generally something of a clerical error.
“The World Boxing Council (WBC) have temporarily removed me from their January rankings," his statement read.
"[They] have requested in order for me to continue being ranked under the WBC governing body I must officially enrol in the WBC Clean Boxing Program supported by VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association).
“I can confirm I have instructed my team who are now in the process of enrolling me.
“I wanted to address this personally for the boxing community and my fans.
"It’s important to me as a professional athlete to enrol in a clean testing programme and play my part in keeping our sport safe along with having my name stated in top five positions across all governing bodies.
“I have had recent meetings with my team discussing opponents for my next fight to put me another step closer to challenge for world titles and I plan to take the earliest opportunity with any of the globally recognised governing bodies.
“Once our enrolment application has been processed, I expect to remain across the WBC’s top five for February’s rankings.
“I want to take this opportunity to officially put the welterweight division on notice for 2022.”
Speaking with Mirror Fighting last week, Benn's promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed that he was one of a number of fighters who hadn't signed up due to issues with paperwork, and promised he would be back shortly.
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Benn is currently expected to return to the ring in April with former world champion Maurice Hooker a possible opponent for a London event.
"It's just that he missed out on some paperwork," Hearn said at a press conference for Michael Conlan vs Leigh Wood in Belfast last week.
"There are a dozen fighters who haven't filled out the form, it's generally sent to a manager or trainer, sometimes it doesn't even get to the fighter.
"We spoke to them last night, they're going to fill out the forms today and they'll be back in.
"He's on full UKAD 365-day-a-year random testing which is 20 times more stringent than the WBC programme, which is still good for boxing."
He had been in talks to fight Adrien Broner for his next outing, but Hearn says he isn't interested in offering Broner the warm-up fight he believes that he needs to make the bout happen.
