Notebook: British regulators launch probe of Conor Benn's failed drug test
Kambosos speaks on Haney rematch; Bivol-Ramirez undercard details; BetUS show; FITE in Focus; Quick hits; Show and tell
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The British Boxing Board of Control announced on Friday that it has opened an investigation in conjunction with official British drug testing agency U.K. Anti-Doping into the positive test returned last month by Conor Benn.
He tested positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug clomiphene in a test conducted by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association in a result returned Sept. 23.
It led to the eventual cancellation of Benn’s heavily hyped 157-pound catch weight fight with Chris Eubank Jr. that was scheduled for Oct. 8 at the sold-out O2 in London.
The fight was only canceled after England’s Daily Mail reported the leaked test results during fight week. It appeared as though British officials, the promoters and fighters were prepared to move forward with the fight despite the positive test — until the results were made public and caused a storm of controversy.
The BBBofC, which uses UKAD testing and doesn’t recognize VADA results, ultimately announced it would “prohibit” the fight. Promoters Matchroom Boxing and Wasserman Boxing considered seeking an injunction against the BBBofC in an effort to allow the fight to happen, but they elected not to pursue that avenue and called off the fight last Thursday.
“Following the British Boxing Board of Control Limited’s decision on 4th October 2022 to prohibit the contest between Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn that was scheduled to take place on 8th October 2022, the Board is aware that it has been widely reported in the press that an ‘A’ sample provided by Mr. Benn to the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association tested positive for a prohibited substance,” BBBofC general secretary Robert Smith said in a statement. “UK Anti-Doping has launched an investigation in relation to Mr. Benn and the Board is in communication with UKAD in relation to that investigation. The Board will release further details in relation to this matter, as and when appropriate.”
It has yet to be announced whether Benn (21-14 KOs), 26, will seek to have his ‘B’ sample tested. If Benn, who has not been formally suspended, is ruled to have doped, he faces a two-year ban under UKAD rules.
Kambosos speaks
Former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. has kept a very low profile heading into his rematch with undisputed champion Devin Haney. He talked up a storm before the first fight but did very little during the build up to the rematch until finally speaking to the media this week at an open work and the news conference.
In June, Haney (28-0, 15 KOs), 23, of Las Vegas, traveled to Kambosos’ turf in Melbourne, Australia, and handily outpointed him to unify all four 135-pound titles, the first time that has ever been done, in one of the biggest fights in the country’s history.
Kambosos (20-1, 10 KOs), 29, invoked his right to an immediate rematch and the sequel takes on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+) at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, where it will be Sunday afternoon.
“I’m physically and mentally focused on this fight right now,” said Kambosos, who pulled a huge upset in November when he outpointed Teofimo Lopez in New York to take his unified title. “Nothing else matters. Whatever was said or whatever was done I’m zoned in on this moment. Nothing will break my focus. I’m not interested in anything else. I’m interested on Sunday and what I do then.”
Kambosos said he has made necessary changes and learned from his defeat.
“You come back a better fighter. So, I’ve made my changes. I’ve looked at certain things. I’ve gone back to my roots as well,” Kambosos said. “We’re just focused. I’m not going to give anything away. I’m just zoned in. Sunday is when I’ll do my talking. We’ll see who laughs last.
“He’s got a fantastic jab. But we have put in fantastic work to not only evade his jab, but whatever he tries to bring. It doesn’t matter.”
He said he also streamlined his team.
“I have a smaller team. I don't have too much of an entourage, but I got a team I’m very comfortable with,” Kambosos said. “I’m taking it old school. I’m going back to what got me there.”
FITE in Focus
I was part of the FITE in Focus show previewing the Wilder-Helenius PPV. Check out the show here:
BetUS Boxing Show
If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on YouTube, please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed all five notable fights of the busy weekend: Deontay Wilder-Robert Helenius, Caleb Plant-Anthony Dirrell, Devin Haney-George Kambosos Jr. II, Claressa Shields-Savannah Marshall and Mikaela Mayer-Alycia Baumgardner. We also took viewer questions and comments and had fun! Watch our show here:
Bivol-Zurdo undercard
Shavkat Rakhimov and Zelfa Barrett will fight for the vacant IBF junior lightweight title on Nov 5 (DAZN) on the undercard of the Dmitry Bivol-Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez light heavyweight title fight at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Matchroom Boxing announced on Friday.
The fight was expected in the wake of Joe Cordina being stripped by the IBF due to a serious hand injury and surgery that will keep him sidelined for several months, making him unavailable to face mandatory challenger Rakhimov by the deadline he had agreed to in order to get the title shot that he won by blistering second-round knockout of Kenichi Ogawa on June 4.
Rakhimov (16-0-1, 13 KOs), 28, a southpaw from Tajikistan, is getting his second chance to fight for a world title. In February 2021, he fought to a draw with Joseph Diaz Jr.
Barrett (28-1, 16 KOs), 29, of England, put himself in title position by winning nine fights in a row since 2018, including a decision win in a title eliminator against Bruno Tarimo in December followed by winning the European title by decision from Faroukh Kourbanov in June.
“It’s amazing to be fighting for the IBF world title in Abu Dhabi on a big show,” Barrett said. “I feel like it’s deserved. I had a world title eliminator last year and I’m ranked No. 2 in the world with the IBF. I’ve been in the gym and I’ve always said I’m two fights away from being a world champion. I beat Bruno Tarimo and then I beat Faroukh Kourbanov. So now I’m here and it’s my time to shine.
“Rakhimov is a very good fighter. He comes forward, he’s aggressive and he’s got a good boxing brain. I’m expecting a tough fight and a tough 12 rounds. We’re going to have to work every second of every minute of every round. I’m preparing for that and I’m going to leave no stone unturned. We’re putting everything into this opportunity.”
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn when Wales’ Cordina (15-0, 9 KOs) is healthy he will get a shot at the Rakhimov-Barrett winner.
“Joe will be really down and frustrated at the moment, but he will get that world title shot as soon as he resumes his career,” Hearn said. “Hopefully, that will be against Zelfa Barrett and we’ll get a massive all-British fight.”
Among those added to the Bivol-Ramirez undercard against opponents to be named:
Former junior bantamweight titlist Kal Yafai (26-1, 15 KOs), 33, of England, who will have his first fight since losing his belt by decision to Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez in February 2020.
Lightweight Campbell Hatton (8-0, 2 KOs), 21, of England, the son of British legend Ricky, who will go for his fourth win of the year.
Quick hits
Weights from New York for Saturday’s Fox Sports PPV card: Deontay Wilder 214.5 pounds, Robert Helenius 253.25 (WBC heavyweight eliminator); Caleb Plant 167.25, Anthony Dirrell 167.75 (WBC super middleweight eliminator); Frank Sanchez 247.75, Carlos Negron 244.5; Gary Antonio Russell 116.5, Emmanuel Rodriguez 117.75 (rematch); Vito Mielnicki Jr. 153.4, Limberth Ponce 153.6; Michel Rivera 134.6, Jerry Perez 135; Gurgen Hovhannisyan 275.4, Michael Coffie 297.6; Michael Angeletti 124.4, Jeremy Adorno 125.8; Geovany Bruzon 230.2, James Evans Jr. 231.4; Keeshawn Williams 144, Julio Rosa 141; Miguel Roman 123.8, Jose Negrete 122.
Three preliminary bouts on the Wilder-Helenius card will air just before the start of the PPV on Saturday on FS1 (from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET). The bouts: Roseland, New Jersey, junior middleweight Vito Mielnicki Jr. (12-1, 8 KOs), 20, versus Limberth Ponce (19-5, 11 KOs), 31, of Mexico, in an eight- or 10-rounder; lightweight contender Michel Rivera (23-0, 14 KOs), 24, a Dominican Republic native fighting out of Miami, against Jerry Perez (14-1, 11 KOs), 29, of Oak Hills, California, in an eight-rounder; and heavyweight Gurgen Hovhannisyan (3-0, 3 KOs), 24, an Armenia native based in Los Angeles, against Bronx, New York, native Michael Coffie (13-2, 10 KOs), 36, in the eight-round opener.
Weights from London for Saturday’s Boxxer card on ESPN+/Sky Sports (2:30 p.m. ET): Claressa Shields 159.3 pounds, Savannah Marshall 159.3 (for undisputed women’s middleweight title); Mikaela Mayer 129.1, Alycia Baumgardner 129.1 (WBO/IBF/WBC women’s junior lightweight unification); Lauren Price 145.5, Timea Belik 145; Caroline Dubois 137, Milena Koleva 136.5; Karriss Artingstall 125.5, Marina Sakharov 124.5; April Hunter 154, Erica Alvarez 152; Georgia O’Connor 149.3, Joyce Van Ee 152; Ebonie Jones 124, Jasmina Nad 120; Ginny Fuchs 114, Gemma Ruegg 115; Sarah Leighmann 125, Bec Connolly 125; Shannon Ryan 114, Buchra El Quaissi 117.
Weights from Melbourne, Australia for Saturday’s Top Rank on ESPN card: Devin Haney 134.8 pounds, George Kambosos Jr. (rematch, for Haney’s undisputed lightweight title); Jason Moloney 117.8, Nawaphon Kaikanha 117.3 (WBC bantamweight eliminator); Andrew Moloney 114.7, Norbelto Jimenez 114.9; Cherneka Johnson 121, Susie Ramadan 119.3; Hemi Ahio 243.3, Faiga Opelu 223.8; David Nyika 199.7, Titi Motusaga 196.9.
Three-belt bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue, who will meet titleholder Paul Butler (34-2, 15 KOs), 33, of England, for the undisputed title Dec. 13 (ESPN+) at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, said during the announcement news conference this week that it will be his final bout at 118 pounds. Inoue (23-0, 20 KOs), 29, of Japan, who has also won junior flyweight and junior bantamweight belts, plans to go up to junior featherweight to seek another title. “This is the last chapter for me as a bantamweight, but it is also an important milestone for my future career,” Inoue said.
Junior welterweight champion Josh Taylor announced via social media this week that he has made a trainer change. Out is Ben Davison after three fights with Taylor and in is Joe McNally. “It’s a pleasure to officially announce that I’ve teamed up with & gonna be working with Joe McNally moving forward,” Taylor tweeted along with a photo of them together. “I’m excited for this new chapter in my career & producing more great nights ahead.” Taylor (19-0, 13 KOs), 31, a southpaw from Scotland, became the undisputed champion when he unified all four belts with a decision over Jose Ramirez in May 2021 with Davison in his corner. Taylor defended them via highly controversial decision against Jack Catterall in February. Since then, Taylor has vacated or been stripped of three belts while still holding the WBO title. A rematch against Catterall is likely for early 2023.
Matchroom Boxing announced preliminary bouts for the card headlined by junior welterweight Montana Love against Stevie Spark on Nov. 12 (DAZN) at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Love’s hometown of Cleveland. One of those bouts will involve Love’s older brother, lightweight Raynell Williams (13-1 7 KOs), 33, a 2008 U.S. Olympian, who ended a nearly five-year ring absence on Sept. 3 with a knockout win in the sixth and final round. He will face Ryizeemmion Ford (8-2 6 KOs), 29, of Alliance, Ohio, in a six-rounder.
Former world title challenger Alexandro Santiago (26-3-5, 13 KOs), 26, of Mexico, and Antonio Nieves (20-3-2, 11 KOs), 35, of Cleveland, will meet in a 10-round bantamweight bout that MVP Promotions announced it has added to the Showtime PPV portion of the Jake Paul-Anderson Silva card on Oct. 29 at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Eye of the Tiger announced that heavyweight Arslanbek Makhmudov (15-0, 14 KOs), 33, a Russian native fighting out of Montreal, will headline on Dec. 16 at the Centre Gervais Auto in Shawinigan, Quebec. He will face an opponent to be named in a 10-rounder. The card will stream live in the United States on ESPN+. Makhmudov has beaten two former world title challengers in his most recent bouts, a unanimous decision over Carlos Takam on Sept. 16 and a sixth-round knockout of Mariusz Wach in February.
Show and tell
Among the most devastating fighters I have covered in my career was the prime Gennadiy Golovkin. He was an absolute knockout machine who would hurt opponents with punches not even close to full force and he also had an indestructible chin. There was a reason he struggled to get name opponents to fight him for so long despite being a long-reigning middleweight champion.
Finally, David Lemieux, a huge knockout puncher in his own right, who four months earlier had scored four knockdowns en route to a unanimous decision over Hassan N’Dam to win the vacant IBF middleweight title, stepped up to the plate and agreed to face GGG in a unification fight.
It would mark Golovkin’s first pay-per-view main event and expectations were sky high for an action fight — for however long it lasted. While it won’t go down as a classic, it was an entertaining fight that Golovkin thoroughly dominated. He dropped Lemieux in the fifth round and led 70-62 on all three scorecards going into the eighth round, during which he stopped Lemieux. The win ran Golovkin’s consecutive knockout streak to 21 as he unified the WBA and IBF titles before an HBO PPV audience and an electric crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden, which also saw the great Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez stop Brian Viloria in the ninth round to retain the WBC and lineal flyweight title in the co-feature. The fight, one of 16 GGG bouts I have covered at ringside, was on Oct. 17, 2015 — seven years ago on Monday. Here is a thin cardboard site poster in my collection.
Benn photo: Ian Walton/Matchroom Boxing; Haney-Kambosos photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Wilder-Helenius photo: Stephanie Trapp/TGB Promotions; Shields-Marshall photo: Boxxer
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if a few powerful promoters, tv networks or more importantly sanctioning bodies forced the issue on not just an agreed list of banned anti performance drugs but more importantly a universal stringent testing set of rules where any pro boxer has to agree to the tests, no outs if they ever want to get paid. Any fails and an impartial group of respected professionals have an agreed list of punishments that fits the crime. and more importantly a small part of the sports overall income goes towards the costs of testing. Perhaps something on the lines of modern drug testing in road cycling should be looked at.
If the B-sample confirms the A-sample then Conor Benn will be suspended for 4 years by UKAD/WADA rules - if he can prove that he ingested the drug without his knowledge then he'll get a 2 year ban (unlikely).
The Conor Benn case was possibly explained this week when it became apparent that he's been working with Dr Usman Sajjad. Dr Sajjad is infamous for explaining how it's easy to get round a urine drug test, this was apparently before working with Benn, and saying that only an idiot gets caught by a urine test.
Of course a VADA sample consists of urine and blood samples - maybe Benn and Sajjad didn't realise that.
Dr Sajjad has also been working with Tyson Fury for over a year - which covers the time after the Wilder fight when Fury returned to fighting in the UK. Fury says Sajjad is there as a GP to help him with any injuries or illness during training camp - if you believe that one you'll believe pigs will fly.
Tyson Fury has a terrible record when it comes to PEDs - some fans don't realise that he actually has 3 strikes against him with UKAD for Cocaine, Nandrolone and refusing to give a sample - all of these are automatic 4 year bans according to UKAD/WADA rules but Fury spent a huge amount of money on lawyers and imo was treated far too leniently by the National Anti-Doping Panel, who came up with his punishment - a 2 year backdated ban was far less than the bans issued to other UK sportsmen in other sports.
The amount of money spent by Fury on lawyers may be why he had to go to the US and take on Wilder three times - he couldn't have made that amount of money in the UK.
The news that this Dr Usman Sajjad is working with Fury should be sounding alarm bells with those governing British boxing. Benn is being investigated by UKAD and imo they should also be looking into what Tyson Fury has been doing and the role of this doctor in his team.