Ogawa tests positive for banned substance; fight with Farmer ruled no-contest

Kenichi Ogawa tested positive for a banned substance in his IBF Junior Lightweight title winning effort against Tevin Farmer’; which will be changed to a no-contest, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.

In a urine test conducted a few days before the fight — but whose results were not returned until after the fight — Ogawa was positive for two forms of androstanediol (synthetic testosterone) and he was suspended on Thursday at the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s first meeting of 2018, the first time details of his positive test were made public.

Ogawa’s postfight drug test was negative, but the A sample and B sample of his prefight test days earlier were both positive. Ogawa will have the opportunity for a hearing at the Feb. 14 commission meeting, although if his attorney, Joseph Brown, is not ready to proceed with the case, commission executive director Bob Bennett told ESPN that the commission would move the hearing to March “as a courtesy.”

“You want to talk about a roller-coaster ride,” Farrmer’s promoter LouDiBella told ESPN after he was informed of Ogawa’s positive test. “I’m sort of stunned by this. I thought Tevin Farmer won that fight. Ogawa put out a great effort in the fight. He was like an Energizer bunny. He was aggressive but not effectively aggressive and he took a lot of peppering from Tevin, and now to find out he tested positive is remarkable. It looks like Tevin Farmer is going to get the opportunity to win that title again after all.”

“I’m always disappointed to have it re-emphasized how big of a problem we have but I think there should be zero tolerance,” DiBella said. “It’s extremely prevalent and it’s dangerous. That being said, there’s a relief. After everything this guy (Farmer) went through, and to have that tainted loss that I didn’t think was a loss at all — now I will call Tevin Farmer and say, ‘Guess what, buddy? Looks like you probably didn’t lose.'”