Boxxer CEO, Ben Shalom, believes that the seemingly never ending saga between Chris Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn could finally be coming to a head and that the bitter rivals are close to agreeing a deal to settle their differences in the ring.

In October 2022, the pair were just days away from fighting when it was revealed that Benn had returned two positive Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) tests for the drug clomifene in the build-up to the fight.

Benn maintained his innocence throughout a long, drawn out legal battle and was recently cleared to resume his career in the United Kingdom after the National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP) cleared him of any wrongdoing over the failed drugs tests.

Although his license was revoked by the British Boxing Board of Control, Benn, 23-0 (14 KOs), did box twice in America whilst the process played out. In September 2023 he recorded a 10-round unanimous decision over Rodolfo Orozco before following that up five months later, a comfortable winner against Peter Dobson over twelve.

Eubank Jnr, 34-3 (25 KOs), has boxed three times since the Benn fight initially fell through. In January 2023 he was shockingly stopped by former WBO super welterweight champion, Liam Smith, but turned the tables and evened the score with the Liverpudlian eight months later. Last October in Riyadh, he dominated Poland’s Kamil Szeremeta to win the IBO world middleweight title.

A fight between the two is an inevitability but progress has been glacially slow. In recent weeks, the negotiations have been bogged down by mind-numbingly boring conversations about purse splits.

Shalom promotes Eubank Jnr and, during an interview with Sky Sports, he sounded relieved that terms seem to be agreed.

“Eubank-Benn is close now. I think we'll have some good news,” Shalom said.

“It’s been difficult. It’s just painful at times. The egos out of control. It’s frustrating. It’s painful because, look, I've not been in the game as long as Frank Warren or Eddie [Hearn] or whatever but I did Amir Khan-Kell Brook, I could never understand it. I was like, ‘You two have only got one fight left. You two have to get in the ring and you're going to make absolute millions.’

“It was so hard. The families wouldn't talk and I sort of understood it because of the history. This one I thought would be really easy because it makes a lot of sense but it's been painful. I’ll be glad to see the back of it and I'm hoping we'll see the back of it this week and everything can move forward.”

After Wednesday's media day promoting Adam Azim vs. Sergey Lipinets on February 1, Shalom again insisted they're close to providing "the big one people want to see," though said it has to be complete within the next week, otherwise they'll pivot to WBA world titleholder Mauricio Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs).

"We've outlined terms for the Lara fight so will pull the trigger on that if we don't know about Conor within the next week. We haven't got time to waste, but we're close," he told The Ring.