Whyte is facing an eight-year drug ban
DILLIAN Whyte’s failed drugs test has thrown his future into jeopardy and plunged the world heavyweight division deeper into chaos.
London’s self- styled Body snatcher looks to have robbed himself of the world-title shot he has craved and faces a lengthy ban from the ring.
In so doing he has further confused the web of world titles which had become more tangled after Anthony Joshua’s shocking loss to Andy Ruiz Jnr.
Furthermore, Ruiz and WBC knockout king Deontay Wilder are threatening never to fight in Britain for fear of being ‘stitched up’. that amounts to a triple whammy against the reputation of UK boxing. One for each of the three substances for which it is alleged Whyte tested positive before saturday’s win over Oscar Rivas.
If Whyte’s B sample confirms UKAD’s initial adverse finding he faces, at the very least, a lengthy suspension which, at 31, would take him close to retirement. As a second offender, it could be a statutory eight years if confirmed guilty. he will also have put his promoter eddie hearn on the spot.
Whyte (below) has already served a two-year ban handed down in 2012 for taking the multi-performance-enhancing drug methylhexanamine — and hearn is on the record as saying that any fighter caught offending a second time ‘should be banned for life’.
that is a view held by many in boxing, Whyte’s Matchroom stable-mate Joshua included.
By bitter irony Whyte recently
cast aspersions of drug use against Joshua. As did Jarrell Miller before his fight with AJ was called off following his drugs test failure.
Joshua has never failed a dope test. Meanwhile hearn has confined himself to merely confirming that the fight was given the green light after the drugs test.
the latest scandal will widen if, as being claimed in America, saturday’s fight was allowed to go ahead without either Rivas or the WBC, who sanctioned the bout, being advised of Whyte’s adverse finding.
Matchroom and the British Boxing Board of Control were informed three days before the fight. the board, who devolve their drugs testing programme to UKAD, are bound by that body’s protocols. hence, in the absence of an immediate ban on Whyte, they had no option but to let the show go on.
Colombia’s Rivas is demanding that the result be annulled and his undefeated record reinstated. If the A sample test is upheld, the British Board are likely to declare the fight a no contest.
Whyte’s win established him as the mandatory challenger to Wilder but that, surely, is an opportunity lost. Wilder said: ‘I would have been pleased to knock Whyte out in one round but it turns out he’s a cheat and donkey of the year.’