By Kenneth Friedman: Eddie Hearn of Matchroom says heavyweight Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller sent him a text following the news reports of British fighter Dillian Whyte allegedly testing positive for a performance enhancing drug before his July 20 fight against Oscar Rivas. Hearn feels that Whyte’s situation is different from that of Miller’s, who tested positive recently himself.
Whyte (26-1, 18 KOs) beat Rivas by a 12 round unanimous decision to become the WBC mandatory challenger for World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. However, Whyte allegedly came up positive for a banned PED three days before the fight.
Hearn says Whyte, 31, met with an independent panel the morning of the Rivas fight, and he was cleared to fight. However, Rivas, his promoter, and the WBC were reportedly not alerted to the positive test.
Jarrell Miller tested positive for banned substances while training for Joshua match
Miller (23-0-1, 20 KOs) tested positive for several banned substances while training for a fight against Anthony Joshua, and he subsequently not allowed to fight. He was pulled from the fight. The issue Miller appears to have is he wasn’t allowed to fight Joshua after his positive, but Whyte was given clearance to fight Rivas. Miller likely sees how he was handled in a different way than the way Whyte. Hearn states that Whyte was cleared by a panel to fight.
With Miller testing positive, his career has been sidelined for now. For how long he’ll be out of action is unclear.
Hearn: Whyte was approved to fight Rivas by BBBofC
“Big Baby Miller text me, ’Oh I see you’re backing Dillian Whyte,'” said Hearn to Talksport.com. “I’m not ‘backing’ Dillian Whyte, we followed a process, we followed the rules. He was asked to attend a hearing, which he did, and he was cleared at that hearing. It wasn’t swept under the carpet, it wasn’t a promoter saying, ‘Let’s try and do this.’ There was a hearing, if you have a problem with that hearing, speak to the national UKAD government agency or whatever. The British Boxing Board of Control approved him to fight, he fought,” said Hearn.
The B-sample from Whyte’s test still needs to be checked. Once that’s examined, this this could be over with if he comes up negative. Hearn isn’t saying what will happen if Whyte’s B-sample turns up a positive test. He was hoping he would be able to fight Wilder as a mandatory. A positive drug test could wreck those plans.
Whyte: I won the fight fair and square
“I am so disappointed with the rubbish that has been said about me over the last few days,” Whyte said on his social media site last Friday. “I have lawyers dealing with it and I have been told that I can’t talk about it for good legal reasons. I was cleared to fight and I won that fight fair and square. Thanks for the support.”