EDDIE HEARN has revealed he is open to adding Imane Khelif to his Matchroom group.
The Algerian won welterweight gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics earlier this month, although her participation in the Games was mired in controversy.
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Khelif, along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, reportedly failed a gender identity test conducted by the IBA in March 2023 – testing positive for male XY chromosomes.
The Russian-backed organization refused to release the test results and put an end to the furore surrounding 25-year-old Khelif, who was born a biological female.
Khelif will now be mulling over the possibility of turning professional, a journey Hearn is willing to facilitate – on one condition.
When asked if he would sign the Olympian, he said iFL TV: “Yes, if the facts were exposed.
READ MORE ABOUT IMANE KHELIF
“If you were in a position where there is no reason why that individual would not compete as a woman.
“First, she is a talented fighter.
“Two, commercially I think she has up to two Instagram millions of followers, then the answer is yes.
“But I want to say that there are probably facts that we don’t know about the situation and whether they are true.
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“But if a fighter was considered a woman with no physical advantages, but again I didn’t see anything, I just saw people say ‘they did this test’.
“Will we be able to see this? Are we just going to believe this narrative?
“It’s never a place I would go, I’m not getting involved in that conversation.”
Khelif has been the target of several defamatory accusations – some of which she intends to take to court – on social media after Italian Angela Carini gave up the fight after just 46 seconds.
Hearn said of the situation in Paris: “If there is an unfair physical advantage to the individual, that is what should be looked at.
“But not by a rival organization or someone with an agenda. But if you were born a woman and lived your whole life as a woman, it’s different.
“I’m not going to say what’s right or wrong, but the facts I’ve seen lead me to believe that you have the right to compete as a woman.
“So I don’t know, but I will also say that this person has been competing on the circuit for years. It’s not like she dominates the scene, she’s lost many times.
“Other fighters came up and said, ‘I trained with her or I beat her.’ I feel like the Italian was a fake job.
“Because it wasn’t really a big blow, and this person has trained with her before.
“But we need more information about this and a conversation about this.”
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