By Adam Caseres: Contributor to Latinosports.com
New york: Andy Ruiz in which some might call the Chris “Areola 2.0” is now facing Anthony Joshua at Madison Square Garden on June 1 in place of Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller for the WBC heavyweight championship. Andy Ruiz a Mexican-American boxer who fought a few weeks ago comes in as a last minute replacement because Miller tested positive three times for illegal substance abuse.
Surely it’s not a Heavyweight bout we would like to see but let’s look at the bright side. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing and the PBC are starting to work together. Andy Ruiz fighting in the PBC bannernow offers hope that we can see the Deontay Wilder vs Joshua title fight sooner rather than later and most likely at some point next year.
With Miller now suspended, its time for sanctioning bodies and state athletic commissions to get together and fix these issues that exist. The WBO has officially banned Miller for six months, though that isn’t enough time for Miller. If you ask me, especially with the fact that Miller failed three blood testing exams, the suspension was lenient.
Training camp is usually 6-10 weeks depending on how huge the fight is and that’s not including a week of press conferences. This is the biggest black eye in boxing these sanctioning bodies have to do better. I’m not saying to ban a fighter for life but at least a year should be the penalty, so fighters don’t cheat and offer a disadvantage to those in deserving of a title opportunity.
VADA testing, the most strict of all that are used, should be implemented in all sanctioning organizations not just the WBC. Ranked top 15 fighters have to be enrolled in the VADA program as was Canelo Alvarez who defends his middleweight title against Danny Jacobs on the DAZN streaming network Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Better yet, fighters should enroll in VADA all year. Nonito Donaire was the very first fighter in enroll in that program and successfully defended his WBA bantamweight title last Saturday. Basically, If fighters aren’t enrolled in VADA they should not be licensed to compete.
This is the only way how we can clean the sport one fighter at a time.
Comment: adam.caceres92@gmail.com)
