Post by themagi on Aug 1, 2019 12:21:05 GMT 1
Before I go any further I will just adjust a point I made yesterday regarding UKAD and their "In Competition" rules. It appears (I write "appears" as UKAD state that In-Comp rules in the UK differ from sport to sport, and I can't find their definition for boxing anywhere on their site) that window to still be able to take banned substances legally under UKAD may in fact be reduced to a mere twenty four hours before competing rather the initial seventy two I posted yesterday, with a small amount of substances allowed to be taken up until twelve hours before go time! Sheesh!
At some point on the afternoon of 17th July, three days before the fight, Dillian Whyte, his team and Matchroom Sport, the event promoters, where verbally alerted to a possible drug test issue that came through officially via writing from UKAD late that evening, with the British Boxing Board of Control also being made aware.
The following day, Thursday 18th July, the final press conference was held with the SKY hype machine in full effect, this was a SKY Box Office event with the Whyte-Rivas fight headlining a PPV night of heavyweight action at the fabled o2 Arena in London (not sold out, I believe) that featured Dereck Chisora, David Price among others (it was better than it looked, honestly) and carried a rather hefty £19.95 price tag if you wished to watch it legally.
At this point, things get murky, quickly. UKAD's use of confidentiality from here on out make things very difficult to verify and the British Boxing Board of Control's deference to UKAD protocols doesn't particularly either, but that's my opinion. We still do not have official confirmation of the substances at the heart of the issue, but according to the story by Thomas Hauser published on boxingscene, Whyte tested positive for epimethandienone and hydroxymethandienone, which are metabolites of the banned stimulant, Dianabol. We are told that Whyte argued this and asked for his B sample to be tested, a process which takes days. With the result of the B sample coming after the date of the scheduled fight, UKAD informed Whyte that he was to explain the positive test issue at a rather hastily arranged hearing in front of the independent National Anti Doping Panel, which decides punishments or lack thereof in cases where UKAD discovers potential cheats. This hearing took place on either the 19th or 20th of July, the latter being the actual day of the fight. Part of Whyte's defense, we are led to believe via comments from several interviews held this week with Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport, is documentation from VADA (a totally different agency, of course) to prove that he passed all of their tests for this camp with no issues and also that the alleged test failure came from a sample collected by UKAD approximately a month before being informed of it's banned substances. Ultimately, the National Anti-Doping Panel declared Whyte "cleared to fight". How they came to this decision is something I am very interested in discovering. There are also unsubstantiated rumours that Oscar Rivas had some kind of testing anomaly in the days leading to the fight, but they are unfounded, to this point.
Next part, I will be looking at the issue on fight night with the gloves that the fighters wished to use and the aftermath of the contest, such as why has the WBC removed Whyte as mandatory challenger and stripped him of his meaningless WBC Silver title if the result to the fight has yet to actually change?
At some point on the afternoon of 17th July, three days before the fight, Dillian Whyte, his team and Matchroom Sport, the event promoters, where verbally alerted to a possible drug test issue that came through officially via writing from UKAD late that evening, with the British Boxing Board of Control also being made aware.
The following day, Thursday 18th July, the final press conference was held with the SKY hype machine in full effect, this was a SKY Box Office event with the Whyte-Rivas fight headlining a PPV night of heavyweight action at the fabled o2 Arena in London (not sold out, I believe) that featured Dereck Chisora, David Price among others (it was better than it looked, honestly) and carried a rather hefty £19.95 price tag if you wished to watch it legally.
At this point, things get murky, quickly. UKAD's use of confidentiality from here on out make things very difficult to verify and the British Boxing Board of Control's deference to UKAD protocols doesn't particularly either, but that's my opinion. We still do not have official confirmation of the substances at the heart of the issue, but according to the story by Thomas Hauser published on boxingscene, Whyte tested positive for epimethandienone and hydroxymethandienone, which are metabolites of the banned stimulant, Dianabol. We are told that Whyte argued this and asked for his B sample to be tested, a process which takes days. With the result of the B sample coming after the date of the scheduled fight, UKAD informed Whyte that he was to explain the positive test issue at a rather hastily arranged hearing in front of the independent National Anti Doping Panel, which decides punishments or lack thereof in cases where UKAD discovers potential cheats. This hearing took place on either the 19th or 20th of July, the latter being the actual day of the fight. Part of Whyte's defense, we are led to believe via comments from several interviews held this week with Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport, is documentation from VADA (a totally different agency, of course) to prove that he passed all of their tests for this camp with no issues and also that the alleged test failure came from a sample collected by UKAD approximately a month before being informed of it's banned substances. Ultimately, the National Anti-Doping Panel declared Whyte "cleared to fight". How they came to this decision is something I am very interested in discovering. There are also unsubstantiated rumours that Oscar Rivas had some kind of testing anomaly in the days leading to the fight, but they are unfounded, to this point.
Next part, I will be looking at the issue on fight night with the gloves that the fighters wished to use and the aftermath of the contest, such as why has the WBC removed Whyte as mandatory challenger and stripped him of his meaningless WBC Silver title if the result to the fight has yet to actually change?
