WBO Middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders tested positive for banned substance and thus putting into question his July 20th defense against Demetrius Andrade in Boston, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com
The test results were returned Wednesday, and VADA president Dr. Margaret Goodman notified the parties involved in a letter obtained by ESPN:
“The results of the analysis are as follows: Adverse. Urine specimen number 4248408: oxilofrine detected. Note the following is also contained on the laboratory report: ‘Opinions: oxilofrine may have resulted from the administration of ephedrine which was also detected but below the decision limit of 11ug/ml. The estimated concentration of ephedrine is 4.6 ug/ml.'”
“Billy Joe will apply for a license in Massachusetts and they will make the decision if he is allowed to box,” promoter Eddie Hearn told ESPN. “The most important thing is that Demetrius Andrade fights for the world title on Oct. 20. If Billy Joe Saunders is ruled out and stripped of the title, we will be looking to make a fight for the vacant world title.”
“If Saunders is stripped, we will do whatever we can to make sure Andrade is fighting for the vacant title on Oct. 20,” Hearn said.
Paco Valcarcel, president of the WBO, whose belt Saunders holds, told ESPN that the sanctioning organization has received the drug test results but would not make any decisions regarding the belt until Massachusetts decides whether it will license Saunders.
“If he doesn’t get licensed, we will strip him,” Valcarcel said. “If he gets licensed, we will still investigate the doping and at that time determine if we will sanction the fight.”
“Mr. Saunders is not in breach of British Boxing Board of Control/United Kingdom Anti-Doping regulations,” Robert Smith, the British Boxing Board of Control general secretary, wrote in a letter to VADA and the promoters, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN. “Please note, in Great Britain in-competition testing is the evening of the contest, anything prior to that is out of competition.
“In addition, Mr. Saunders has been tested a number of times in 2018, all negative, his last out of competition test by UKAD was on 24th September 2018 and I will advise of the result when it is made available.”
Former Saunder opponent David Lemieux was not amused by Saunders test result.
“U dirty cheating scumbag, ur not only a miserable human being but ur also a dirty cheap cheating rotten p—k #billyjoesaunders u should be banned from boxing,” he wrote.
