EDITOR’S LETTER
Why the sport must hand out stricter punishments to drug cheats
Boxing must be harder on drug cheats
IIT was a strange move last week, even by Dillian Whyte’s standards, to go all judgemental on Lucas Browne for being caught with illegal substances in his body. What seemed to irk the British heavyweight at the London press conference to promote their March 24 bout, was not that the Australian may have attempted to cheat in the past, but that he was stupid enough to get caught.
Whyte, let us not forget, was stupid enough to get caught himself at the start of his pro career but now – if his impressive knowledge of all the different types of supplements and drugs you can and can’t take and the times you should and shouldn’t take them is anything to go by – seems to be much wiser than he was back then. Although his putrid sign off at the end, as he compared his opponent to sexually transmitted disease chlamydia, showed the 29-year-old still has some growing up to do.
Perhaps we should be thankful that this promotion hasn’t attempted to cover up their past crimes but, nonetheless, one former drug cheat so publicly accusing another of not having the intelligence to avoid getting busted highlights the the problems the sport faces if it’s ever to clean up its act. And everyone is a suspect, it seems. While Whyte was berating Browne for his proven offences, Joseph Parker – the WBO champion – was accusing March 31 opponent Anthony Joshua of being the “king of steroids” due to his riproaring physique. Barely anyone batted an eyelid. This is 2018, such disparaging insults are apparently fair game, and Joshua has heard them all before. The WBA and IBF king did not grumble, and responded by highlighting the extensive drug-testing he’s forced to endure.
Elsewhere in the division, possible future Joshua rival, Alexander Povetkin, has been invited to the UK to be showcased on the undercard of the Parker showdown. And while he’s been forgiven by the WBO, the WBA and certain promoters for his multiple offences (after his most recent failure in 2016 he was even permitted to enter the ring and gruesomely wallop Johann Duhaupas out of consciousness), folk with some common sense should know better. Particularly David Price, his reported opponent.
The sense of doom around this bout is hard to shake, but perhaps that’s because I’ve watched closer than most while the loveable Scouser’s career has been wrecked by cheating rivals. But Price, the ultimate drugs victim, chasing a showdown with Povetkin, the ultimate drug abuser, belongs only in Hollywood. There one can imagine Price – much like Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV – heroically repelling the Russian’s dastardly fists. In reality, though, the consequences of their bout could be much darker.
Price no doubt feels like he deserves the purse that this bout will generate, and is willing to gamble on scoring the upset because of where victory might take him. But what does it say about the sport of boxing, when Price feels like his last chance at salvaging a career wrecked by drug cheats, is get in the ring and face a serial offender?
On we go. Just two months after being forced out of a shot at WBC boss Deontay Wilder because he flunked a test for the second time in his career, Luis Ortiz has been confirmed as Wilder’s March 3 challenger in New York. And back in the UK, Tyson Fury is set to make his return after having his suspension lifted following two years out of the ring after being caught in 2015.
Some have suggested that bans have been served so we should live and let live. And I understand that. The fighters, while they should take a look in the mirror for cheating in the first place, should not be blamed for being welcomed back. It is the sport, however, and the people and organisations who govern it, who should be braver. Had just one of Whyte, Browne, Povetkin, Ortiz or Fury been thrown out of boxing for life, it’s unlikely so many would be tempted to follow their lead.