Eddie Hearn has defended the WBC’s decision to install Conor Benn as their next mandatory challenger at welterweight.

It was confirmed during the WBC’s annual convention, which took place in Thailand last week, that the 29-year-old will be called to face whoever wins between 147-pound champion Mario Barrios and Ryan Garcia in the new year.

But that decision has been criticised given that it is now three-and-a-half years since Benn (24-1, 14 KOs) last boxed at welterweight, a second round stoppage of Chris van Heerden. Both his fights with Chris Eubank Jr. this year have taken place at middleweight and he weighed a career-heaviest 159 ¼ pounds for the second one, which he won via unanimous decision.

Now his promoter Hearn, who is ‘over the moon' at the WBC’s decision, has confirmed they requested to maintain their place in the 147-pound rankings instead of taking a spot at middleweight.

“My honest assessment is that I get it,” he said of the WBC’s decision. “Conor against the winner of Barrios against Garcia is a massive fight.

“To be fair I think it's a fight that would have happened whether he was mandatory or not but I'm over the moon.

“Conor Benn was in the welterweight rankings before the Chris Eubank fight. Now, when he beat Chris Eubank, who was top 10 with most middleweight sanctioning bodies, the WBC came to us and said: ‘do you want us to rank you at middleweight? You've just beaten a top 10 middleweight’.

“So we probably would have gone in the top five at middleweight but we said: ‘no, we want to stay at 147’.

“The answer is, if you're in the rankings at that point, do you acknowledge that really impressive victory against Eubank? You can't move Conor backwards after that win.”

Benn has made no secret of his desire to win the WBC title in particular, because it was a belt his dad Nigel won. That green and gold strap hangs in Benn’s gym to this day and now he wants one of his own to go alongside it.

Barrios and Garcia appear close to finalising a deal to meet for the welterweight belt early next year so Benn is now in line to face the winner at some point in the summer of 2026.

Hearn added: “I do get the argument that moving him to No. 1 is high but I also get the argument that if you win a fight of that magnitude, against a top-10 ranked opponent like Eubank, especially in the middleweight division, you can't just ignore it.

“You can’t just keep him where he is after a win like that. You have to move up. So, maybe the argument was he shouldn't have been there in the first place with that inactivity at 147.

“But, given the win, I also understand now that it's a big fight for the division. Listen, I'm over the moon and approaching that fight as the mandatory challenger, we're very grateful.”