As is often the case when a big-name fighter flunks a drugs test, either before or after a fight, previous opponents of the busted fighter come out and wonder out loud if there was cheating afoot when they fought the flagged fighter in question. We saw this quite recently with Conor Benn, with a number of his earlier opponents wondering if he did something untoward in their fight (Benn, we must stress, has insisted his innocence all the way).
Now, with Dillian Whyte’s career in serious jeopardy and his big return fight with Anthony Joshua off due to Whyte’s drugs test coming back with “adverse” findings, a previous opponent of Whyte’s, Jermain Franklin, is suggesting Whyte “was probably doing it when we fought too.”
Speaking with BN Online, Franklin, who dropped a close decision against Whyte in the UK back in November of last year, said it “p****s him off” when fighters use illegal stimulants to gain an upper hand.
“Like he probably used them when we fought,” Franklin said of Whyte and illegal stimulants (again, Whyte insists he is completely innocent, and he says will prove it). “I heard this ain’t the first time, so I’m figuring he was probably doing it when we fought too. It p****s me off. I get enraged. We train our whole lives, we give it our all and then people just come in and take advantage and cheat. It’s not fair to the ones that live the sport – the ones that really love and care about the sport.”
There is no doubt about it, Dillian Whyte is public enemy number-one right now, even though we must adhere to the code, innocent until proven guilty. Franklin is far from alone when it comes to laying into Whyte, with plenty of big names from the sport saying Whyte, if he is 100-percent found to have taken a banned substance or substances, should be banned for life, no ifs, ands, or buts.
It takes an inordinate amount of time for these investigations to get done and dusted, however, (look at the Benn case, still dragging on as it is) and we will probably have to wait some time before the full facts regarding Whyte’s case come above board to the public.
Meanwhile, as of right now, we are still waiting to see if Joshua will go ahead and fight a late replacement foe on Saturday night.