It’s getting to the point now where fight fans are fully expecting one big name or another to be reported as testing positive for an illegal substance each and every week. Long since weary of big name after big name testing positive for PEDS, fight fans everywhere are asking themselves, what is happening, what HAS happened, to our beloved sport?
Fans have likely heard the news about Dillian Whyte by now. Reports all over the place inform us how Whyte tested positive for a banned substance three days BEFORE his fight with Oscar Rivas. As per a report in The Independent, the publication sourcing PA in the article, Whyte’s A sample, tested by UKAD and VADA, came back positive. Whyte then asked for his B sample to be tested by UKAD and VADA (which is his right), but this test could not be done ahead of Saturday’s fight with Rivas, and will instead be carried out this week some time – therefore the fight of July 20 went ahead even though UKAD and VADA knew Whyte had a positive A sample. Rivas was not informed about the positive test.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqTDFV8EPKU
We must now wait and see what happens with Whyte’s B sample, but Rivas understandably, wants a rematch, and for the result of Saturday’s fight, which contested both the WBC interim heavyweight title and was a final eliminator for the WBC title, to be changed to a no-contest.
Whyte has yet to speak on the matter. Fans, though, may not be willing to give Whyte the benefit of the doubt unless such a time comes that his B sample returns clean; Whyte did of course fail a drugs test back in 2012, for which he was banned for two years.
A number of people, including WBC heavyweight champ Deontay Wilder, have gone the whole hog in criticising Whyte and his team. If Whyte’s B sample comes back dirty, he will almost certainly face a life-time ban from boxing.
It is entirely possible, however, that the B sample will come back clean. We must all wait and see what happens before we jump on the bandwagon. Still, the sport can really do without any more stories like this. How can all fighters who opt to cheat be stopped?
In the case of Dillian Whyte, let’s hope for his sake that that B sample comes back negative. If it doesn’t, Whyte – who has worked so hard – will likely kiss big fights with Wilder and Tyson Fury goodbye.
