This man fights Anthony Joshua at Wembley on Saturday, but has failed TWO drug tests . . . just how big is boxing’s doping problem?
AT FIRST glance, the ties binding David Price and Johann Duhaupas are few and far between. But the two heavyweights, born on opposite sides of the English channel, share one sorry experience: less than 16 months apart, they were laid out by Alexander Povetkin. Both knew he had twice failed drug tests, but both were lured into the ring. They laid their lives on the line because the incentive was too great to turn down.
Their defeats represent small footnotes in boxing’s muddied history with illegal substances.
But for Povetkin, who challenges Britain’s Anthony Joshua on Saturday night for the world heavyweight title, they were two steps on his road back to the top.
The Wembley showdown comes a week after Canelo Alvarez — who this year also failed two drug tests — dethroned Gennady Golovkin in Las Vegas. Two of the year’s biggest bouts, both tainted by talk of who had taken what.
Doping is not just a boxing problem and the sport’s troubles go beyond Povetkin and Canelo, who — along with the other fighters named here — deny any wrongdoing. But their presence in the ring shines a spotlight on a sport where it feels like anarchy reigns.
British heavyweight pair Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte are among the high-profile fighters to fail drug tests in recent years. But the scale of drug cheating in boxing is almost impossible to quantify. Some believe it is rampant, others maintain it is a few rotten apples.
Sportsmail has spoken to many in the sport who are concerned by dangerous systemic flaws in the war on drugs, allowed to fester by inadequate testing, ineffective sanctions and a resistance to change. Startling claims include: n A sports scientist formerly jailed for dealing steroids to athletes believes that ‘ more than 50 per cent’ of fighters use performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).
n A prominent tester likens an anti- doping system to the ‘Wild West’.
The head of a major sanctioning body admits cheats remain one step ahead of the system. DOPING in boxing reached the sport’s highest echelons when talks over a 2010 super- fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao collapsed amid a dispute over pre-fight testing.
They eventually resolved their differences and put on the richest fight of all time. But not everyone has such a favourable outcome. Just ask David Price.
Following a decorated amateur career that culminated in bronze at Beijing 2008, the heavyweight was tipped to win world titles.
But that still eludes him. Now 35, Price has suffered five defeats in 27 bouts, with four coming at the hands of fighters who failed drug tests. The first setback came in 2013, when Price saw his career twice derailed by Tony Thompson, who had earlier called for doping to be legalised. His attempts to bounce back were then shattered by Erkan Teper. Both were later banned for testing positive for drugs. Price says: ‘In boxing, you’re always fighting for your next purse. You’re fighting to win, and if that win is taken away by a drugs cheat, they’re robbing money off you. They’re stealing from your family.’
Price has never considered turning to the dark side. He resigned himself to a role in a rigged game. By the time he rolled the dice against Povetkin in March, he had been broken for good.
‘I needed to take that fight so I don’t regret that,’ he explains. ‘(And) although I’ve been directly affected by them in the past, I’ve screamed and shouted different things about (drugs) and the reality is nothing is ever going to change. I’m past caring . . . no one gives a s*** about it so it makes no odds to me. The whole subject has defeated me ... I’ve always been naive. I’ve always just thought no one is on it and when I hear people are, I’m surprised. Now I need to stop being surprised.’
Six months on from being viciously knocked out, Price faces the ultimate ignominy of fighting on the Russian’s undercard. The Scouser meets Sergey Kuzmin at Wembley in his latest comeback.
‘It has made me wonder going into a fight, “I wonder if he’s using anything”, but what can I do? Retire in case someone is using steroids? I can’t do that because I have my own ambitions.’ ACCORDING to the UK AntiDoping Agency, there have been 29 boxing-related doping violations since 2010. Of all major sports, only rugby league and rugby union have seen more.
The British Boxing Board of Control estimate that in the last two years, UK Anti-Doping has carried out about 500 tests on their behalf, with approximately four per cent coming back positive.
The founder of the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA), who have tested boxers since 2012, says seven per cent of their tests produce adverse results. Yet no one is under any illusion that these account for every cheat in boxing.
‘ It’s rampant,’ claims Victor Conte, a sports scientist previously jailed for providing steroids to athletes, who still works with a host of fighters such as US welterweight champion Shawn Porter.
‘They feel that in order to be competitive, they have to do what they have to do. And if they have knowledge that an opponent is doing it, they feel like an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’
Conte predicts that ‘a majority, more than 50 per cent’ of fighters use PEDs in the 12 months leading up to big fights. No tester or boxer supported this figure to Sportsmail but British boxing legend Ricky Hatton agrees ‘a lot of people have been on it over the years’.
Many officials are resigned to the reality that cheats remain one step ahead of a testing system described by Conte as ‘inept’.
UK Anti-Doping can test any boxer licensed by the British Board, in and out of competition, and the UK is generally considered one of the more robust countries in the doping fight.
Other nations are less stringent and in the US the situation has been likened to the ‘Wild West’. With no national governing body, boxing is run by individual state commissions, each vying to host lucrative fights and each with their own anti-doping procedures.
‘Some commissions do no drug testing, some do extensive testing, some of the ones that do extensive testing don’t do out- of- competition testing, so that can be like the Wild West,’ says former ringside doctor Margaret Goodman, who founded VADA.
Joshua revealed that he had been tested 12 times in the build-up to fighting Povetkin. But testing at lower levels is very expensive and no programme is foolproof.
Travis Tygart, chief executive of the US Anti-Doping Agency and the man who brought down Lance Armstrong, once claimed passing a test in Nevada was as easy as ‘walking across the street’. His organisation is under the microscope, however, after reports suggested that, despite carrying out 1,501 tests between 2010 and 2018, they only reported one adverse finding to a state commission.
BUT as most testing occurs only in the weeks between contracts being signed and fight night, it’s a system ripe for abuse. ‘Most (PEDs) will clear (from your body) in a relatively short time,’ Conte explains. ‘ But if they’re doing intense weight training and other explosive power and speed-type training in conjunction with testosterone, those gains will carry over for a long time, at least nine months, some say for ever!’
Canelo maintains contaminated meat was to blame for the drugs found in his system. But the decision to give him a six-month ban was widely condemned.
For many boxers, including Scotland’s Josh Taylor, the solution is simple. ‘Anyone caught using steroids should get an instant lifetime ban,’ he tells Sportsmail. ‘Tony Bellew has said it — if someone dies and (the opponent) is on the juice, that’s like premeditated murder.’
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman and British Board chief
New champion Canelo has also tested positive twice this year
Robert Smith said every case must be judged on its merits. However, that approach causes problems in a sport full of riches. ‘We all realise how powerful PEDs are . . . (but) the financial incentive is so great and the consequences and penalties so small that (doping) is a good bet,’ Conte insists. ‘In Olympic sports it used to be two years and then they made it four years . . . if you can’t earn money for four years, you’d think twice about using drugs.’
Even if Conte and Co had their wish, enforcing longer suspensions would be hard because the lack of a world governing body means it is possible for a boxer banned in one jurisdiction to fight elsewhere. Likewise, sanctioning bodies do not have to accept each other’s rulings. Povetkin’s second failed test in 2016 earned him a WBC ban but he is still highly ranked by the WBO, IBF and WBA.
Each body has its own antidoping policy, with the WBC the only one to employ all-year-round random testing for all its champions and top-15 ranked fighters.
In 2013, Lamont Peterson beat Kendall Holt in Washington, despite having been refused a licence in Nevada months earlier after testing positive for testosterone. A year earlier, Erik Morales tested positive for clenbuterol in the weeks before his fight with Danny Garcia in New York. But the promoters, sanctioning bodies and state commission allowed the fight to go ahead nonetheless.
‘State commissions get a percentage of the gate — they’re financial partners with the promoters and boxers,’ Conte says. ‘Therefore they will do whatever it takes, including looking the other direction to enable, harbour and promote the use of drugs.’
But surely, despite Conte claiming otherwise, the authorities DO want to catch dopers?
‘I think that’s mixed,’ VADA chief Goodman admits. ‘I remember when I was with Nevada (State Athletic Commission) we had hearings requiring MRI studies, and a very prominent promoter standing up and saying, “Well, you can’t do that because what happens if the scan is abnormal?” I said, “Isn’t that the point?” ’ So what can be done? The answer seems obvious: create a global governing body with the power to enforce uniform testing and effective punishments.
There is support for this in boxing but there is also an acceptance that such improvements are unlikely. British Boxing chief Smith says: ‘The whole mindset of the sport has to change. People don’t like change.
‘It would be wonderful if there was a world governing body but I don’t think we’ll get it in my time on the board.’
So who is to blame? Goodman points the finger at commissions, who she says lack funding, education and a willingness to change.
Conte believes big-name fighters must take the lead, while Sulaiman says managers and promoters could ‘demand their fighters go through random testing’.
Many boxers blame the authorities but Smith says they must share the responsibility. ‘We run (antidoping) seminars . . . and the takeup from boxers is very low and then if they fail a test the first thing everybody says is, “Well, the boxing board never told me anything about that” which is not true,’ he says. ‘We can lead a horse to water . . . if they’re professional sportsmen they have to act like pro sportsmen.’
‘I COULDN’T win my world title knowing I’d had a pick-me-up in order to do it,’ Hatton tells Sportsmail. ‘The reason you want to win a world title is to say, “I was the best, I was better than that guy”. But it seems a false thing if you’ve had a tablet or a needle.’
Unfortunately for the former two-weight king, not everyone shares his stance.
And so on Saturday, sport’s greatest prize risks falling into the hands of a tainted fighter.
Povetkin isn’t alone in having failed a drug test but should he triumph at Wembley, it will cap a grim week in the battle for clean sport.
For Price and others, any turning of the tide in the war on drugs would already have come too late. But for fans, boxers and officials hoping to fix the flaws putting lives at risk, the fight goes on.