WBA heavyweight king David Haye intends to push for mandatory Olympic-style random drug-testing for all world champions. Haye´s trainer, manager and confident Adam Booth revealed that his fighter ”wishes to use his position as world heavyweight champion to clean up the sport”.
”People created rumours about David using banned substances when he moved up from cruiserweight to heavyweight, but he would never do that. He now feels he wants to use his position to campaign against drug use in the sport.”
Haye’s stance follows in the footsteps of Floyd Mayweather Jr, who now insists that anyone he fight´s in the future must agree to random drug-testing. His last opponent, Shane Mosley, agreed to the testing. Several years ago, Mosley was linked to the notorious Victor Conte and the BALCO drugs scandal.
”Mayweather pulled a masterstroke,” said Booth. ”We’d like every fighter to embrace random drug-testing. There is no conceivable reason why any fighter would not agree to random drug-testing. The only way to clean up the sport is to do this, and start from the top down. While David Haye has a voice in the sport and a position as world heavyweight champion, he wants to do his bit. He is going to be quite vociferous about it.”
Post fight drug testing is standard in professional boxing, via urine sampling. Blood testing is rarely if ever used.
The current system has been effective, and over the years has caught fighters using both performance enhancing and recreational drugs. Heavyweight champions Tim Witherspoon, Franz Botha, Mike Tyson and Shannon Briggs are just some of the famous names that have fallen foul of post fight drug tests.
In the mean time, David Haye is no closer to naming his next opponent, with WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, his brother the WBO/IBF ruler Wladimir, former WBA champ Nikolai Valuev, WBA no.1 contender Ruslan Chagaev, former light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek, and Britain´s former Olympic champion Audley Harrison all in the mix.
In anticipation of a shot at Haye or one of the Klitschko´s, Harrison has vacated the European heavyweight title. “We are in discussions with the Klitschko´s and Adam Booth and David Haye regarding a world title shot later this year,” said Harrison’s promoter Eddie Hearn.
However, Booth denied Hearn’s claim. ”We are dancing delicately around restrictions at the moment, but we want David to fight in mid-October, in the UK if possible. David has always said he wants meaningful fights. As a boxing fan, I hate that fight, because I don’t think Audley Harrison has earned the right, because he has not fought anyone in the top 20 in the world yet in the heavyweight division.”
Long shots, but still in with a shout are 44 year old Bernard Hopkins, who like Haye is linked to Golden Boy Promotions, and 47 year old Evander Holyfield.
My pick? Holyfield!
