"Yea, absolutley" Hearn will bring Conor Benn to Texas

Famed Promoter and Chairman of Matchroom Promotions has just wrapped up a sensational card at the Tech Port Arena in San Antonio's westside. A card that saw Alamo City's favorite son Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez scored a lopsided unanimous decision to become the 210s first-ever two-division world champion. Cards in the Lone Star State have gone quite well for Hearn, including breaking the all-time attendance record back in May 2021, when his countryman, Billy Joe Saunders, was stopped in eight one-sided rounds by Canelo Alvarez to unify three-quarters of the super middleweight gold at AT&T Stadium in front of 73,126 fans. The British promoter has enjoyed his time, and his business has thrived in Texas. He is now considering bringing his prized welterweight, undefeated Conor Benn, to Texas as well.

Benn has not fought since he failed a PED test and showed traces of clomifene in October of 2022 prior to fighting Chris Eubank Jr. Benn was removed from WBC welterweight rankings, a title currently held by Desoto's Errol Spence. Benn has, as of April, been reinserted into the sanctioning bodies' world rankings. The World Boxing Council has now accepted his argument explaining that he returned positive drug tests, which were conducted between July and September, due to high egg consumption. Benn currently sits at the six-spot in their rankings.

However, this is where things get interesting for Benn, who has not cooperated with the BBBofC, which is responsible for licensing British boxers, their equivalent to the TDLR in Texas. Benn voluntarily relinquished his British boxing license and allegedly intends to sue the BBBofC, and his tests were mishandled. Meaning, currently, he is without a British Boxing License. He can however, apply for a license to fight in the US. Commissions in Nevada, New York, and California have all expressed they will not license Benn to box. That leaves only one of the "major commissions" in the US for the undefeated welterweight. Hearn spoke favorably of the Texas Commission. When asked if he would bring his prized welterweight to the Lone Star State, the promoter emphatically answered, "Yea, absolutely. Texas, for me is one of the best commissions in the boxing world and definitely in America." He noted that he had worked here many times, including twice with Canelo. Hearn went onto say of the Texas Commission, "They've been fair, but they've been strict." He added, when looking for a license for Benn, Texas, "Would be a credible commission to apply."

Jorge Castaneda Scores Another Upset Victory, Closes In On World Title Fight

It was a long two-year layoff for Jorge Castaneda who suffered through medical injuries that canceled one fight and then a global pandemic that kept him out of the ring for another year. He finally returned to the ring back in April and scored an upset decision victory over Otha Jones III in Miami, Florida on the undercard of Andrade-Williams. That set up what happened on Saturday night in London, England. A fight that Castaneda announced to his hometown fans in Laredo at Fight Fest 9/11.

Castaneda was matched with unbeaten British prospect Youseff Khamari in a 10 round affair at the 02 Arena for the WBC Super featherweight silver title. A win would propel the Laredo native to the world-class level and put his name in world title discussions, and a win is what the Texan delivered. After a fairly even first half of the fight, Castaneda jammed on the gas and went full steam ahead. Moving only forward he started to break his British foe down. Scoring with right hands and left hooks Khamari clearly started to slow down. The eighth round swung the momentum in the favor of the Gateway City native for good as a left hook staggered Khamari and sent him reeling backwards. Castaneda followed up and unleashed a barrage of power shots and nearly got his man out. A game Khamari survived the round and fought valiantly over the last six minutes. However, it wasn't enough as Castaneda had worn him down and continued the onslaught to capture the decision by scores of 96-94, 97-94 with the third judge somehow scoring it even at 95-95

Castaneda came back to Laredo as a hometown hero, he's come 180 degrees. From being stopped in his home city to a hero's welcome at Laredo, Laredo International Airport. The stakes are about to get higher for the Laredo, Native. The home of former world champion Gabriel and Orlando Canizales is now on the brink of being the home of yet another world champion. Jorge Castaneda is now the leader in the clubhouse to be the next Gateway City native to capture a world title, a young stable of talented Laredo based fighters is capturing the attention of the boxing world, in addition to Castaneda, Josh Juarez, Jaime Jasso, Nick Molina and a litany of other young upstarts are putting Laredo on the boxing map and have bright careers ahead of them. However, it's Castaneda who is on the face track to a world title. A fight between him and another one of Eddie Hearn’s young British prospects, Joe Cordina, is already being called for on both sides of the Atlantic. If that fight can't get made and Castaneda has lots of young 130-pound prospects in the US he would match up interestingly with including Gabe Flores Jr, Xavier Martinez, Albert Bell, and Lamont Roach are all out similar positions of their career and would make high level, fascinating scraps that could propel the inner into a world title fight.