By Jeff Aranow: The promoter for #1 WBC Alexander Povetkin, Andrey Ryabinskiy, had a press conference on Monday in Moscow, Russia to talk about Povetkin’s positive drug test for the drug Medronium and his postponed fight against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
Ryabinskiy says Povetkin did not fail his drug test for the Wilder fight. .
“Povetkin didn’t fail a doping test,” Ryabinsky said as quotes by fightnews.com. “He has 15 times lower meldonium concentration than the limit established by WADA. Now we need to pass additional tests, then we will set a new date of the fight and do it.”
The World Boxing Council will be the one that will decide whether the Povetkin vs. Wilder fight will be allowed to be rescheduled or not. Their last official word is the Wilder-Povetkin fight is postponed until further notice until they complete their investigation. We should see the WBC rescheduling the fight in the near future. Ryabinskiy appears prepared to take legal action if he must to get Povetkin his WBC mandated title shot against the 30-year-old Wilder.
“If we don’t come to an agreement about the fight with Wilder’s team, we are ready to meet them in court,” said Ryabinskiy. “The fight is not cancelled but postponed, we are discussing a new date. There are no legal barriers for the fight. The official Wilder-Povetkin fight status is ‘postponed.’ Everything else is just thoughts of some persons…All claims against Povetkin are legally unsound. This is just an inflated press story.”
The next move will be the WBC’s. Wilder’s management will need to wait and see what happens with the WBC’s rulings. They have no reason for not wanting the fight against Povetkin to take place because it’s a match that will see Wilder receive his biggest payday of his career in making over $4 million. The things that Wilder’s promoter Lou Dibella is unhappy about is the positive test from Povetkin for the performance enhancing drug meldronium, and the cost of the training camp to prepare for the fight. Wilder reportedly paid seven-figures in getting ready for the fight in training expenses. If the fight is postponed for any length of time, then the money will have been wasted. The best way for Wilder to not have wasted that money would be if the WBC reschedules the fight for a week or two from now.
“I am a clean fighter and I have not been taking meldonium since it was prohibited,” Povetkin said per Fightnews.com. I was perfectly ready for the fight and I am very upset with its postponement.”
Wilder will need to stay in the ready mode in case the WBC sides with Povetkin’s promoter Ryabinskiy to have the fight rescheduled.
Povetkin’s situation is unique in a way because the drug meldonium was only banned recently.