JEFF POWELL: Sanity prevailed with fight called off, but the biggest loser in this fiasco is Eubank

The eerie specter of Chris Eubank Jr having to box Conor Benn under the dark cloud of his opponent’s failed drug test disappeared when the fight was eventually called off.

Boxing breathed a huge sigh of relief when promoter Eddie Hearn broke off his fight to save the O2 show from Benn’s positive return for Clomifene.

It had already become clear that the British Boxing Board of Control would not sanction Saturday’s multi-million pound show again under any circumstances.

Hearn had tested the legal waters, but there was little or no chance of getting a High Court injunction against the Board. Not with the horrible smell of performance-enhancing drugs in the air.

Common sense prevailed. The hardest game came out of this particular chaos with his nose clean, not heavily bloodied.

The risk was avoided that Eubank – dehydrated from falling back to the catch weight for this fight that their famous 1990s fathers left behind – would be seriously hospitalized or worse by Benn hitting way above his natural pound with substance- amplified power.

The consequences for the sport would have been disastrous.

If and when this nostalgic circus act is re-released, it will have to be after several weeks of rigorous and very frequent testing from Benn. Probably Eubank too, even though he’s the innocent victim here.

If the B sample from his Vada test confirms the A detection of a female fertility drug that builds muscle and stamina in men, Benn could be banned from the ring for some time.

Benn had protested his innocence almost 48 hours before the scheduled fight. But when he suddenly packed his bags in his car and drove away from a hotel on the Thames shortly before the last media conference of the week, the cancellation notice was hanging on the wall.

The tens of millions spent on this production – including seven-figure purses for the fighters – put pressure on Hearn to save the fight.

Pressure was mounted by DAZN — its digital streaming TV partner — which suffered significant financial losses from refunding pay-per-view purchases for this fight and potentially overflowing from thousands of disappointed regular monthly subscribers.

The loss of credibility of the sport itself would have been much greater if the struggle had been allowed to continue.

Although there has been some image damage caused by this scandal plus the collapse of the much anticipated mega-heavyweight Battle of Britain between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

But things looked much worse before Hearn made his announcement.

The biggest loser in this fiasco is Eubank. Chris Jr has struggled during training to bring his weight below his usual middleweight boxing limit.

This is no easy feat for a man in his thirties who had recently moved up to super middleweight, which had a good effect on that division.

He is not getting his full grant now. Will he be paid decent compensation for his efforts this time around, especially since there’s no absolute certainty that the fight will be rescheduled?

Only Hearn can tell us.

Since last night he said no. When Hearn later appeared before the crowded media, he offered only brief additions to the official statement and declined questions.

Hearn insisted this was just a postponement, adding that the decision was made by himself and co-promoter Kalle Sauerland “for the good of boxing”. Not by the Supreme Court, as has been speculated.

Never was Fast Eddie so silent.

If he had asked us about pulling the plug, my answer would have been, “Thank God!”