Conor Benn enjoyed target practice on Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas.
The 147-pound contender outworked resilient, but overmatched Peter Dobson to win a one-sided decision in a 151-pound fight, his second consecutive victory in the U.S. since he lost his license in the U.K. for failing two drug tests
The official scores were 119-109, 118-110 and 118-110. Boxing Junkie also had it 118-110, 10 rounds to two.
Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) has been through a lot the past year and half and still can’t fight at home. He tested positive for a banned drug but was cleared of wrongdoing by an independent anti-doping panel only to have British authorities appeal that decision.
His goal amid the turmoil was to prove that he remains a formidable welterweight, which he did on Saturday.
Benn appeared as if he would run away with the victory, landing at will against the reticent, seemingly overwhelmed Dobson in the first three rounds.
However, Dobson (16-1, 9 KOs) came to life in Round 4, responding to Benn’s attacks with hard shots of his own at times to remain competitive the rest of the way.
The American’s problem is that he couldn’t match his British counterpart’s work rate and accuracy overall, which accounted for the one-sided scoring.
Dobson’s greatest accomplishment was his ability to remain on his feet for 12 rounds after absorbing so much punishment from a far superior opponent.
Benn had never gone 12 rounds before Saturday.
“You can always do better,” he said afterward. “I’ll go back and assess it. No doubt I’ll be disappointed with things that I’ve done, silly right hands I got caught with.
“But overall this was about me getting back to where I was mentally.”
Now it’s on to bigger and better things for Benn, who hopes British officials will reinstate him soon. The resident of Essex wants to fight at home.
And he has called out a number of top fighters on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, including 147-pound champion and pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford.
“The dream is for me to fight at home,” he said. “… That’s the plan once all this is cleared up. I feel (his uncertain status) is still lingering, still in the back of my head. I want to get back to be able to fully focus on destroying people.”