The drugs test Francisco Rodriguez failed for his June fight with Galal Yafai wasn’t his first. He also failed a drugs test for the bout he had before facing Yafai.
The Texas Commission has informed BoxingScene that Rodriguez’s previous fight, an eight-rounder last December with Josue Jesus Morales, had been changed to a no contest because of a doping violation.
BoxingScene has requested more details, but promoter Eddie Hearn – who works with Yafai – was today asked about yesterday’s WBC ruling, which concluded that Rodriguez’s use of a banned substance was unintentional, reinstated Yafai as the interim WBC titleholder and called for an immediate rematch between Yafai and Rodriguez. In their first meeting, Rodriguez battered Yafai en route to a wide unanimous decision win.
“To make it even worse, I found out last night that he also failed a drugs test in his last fight, and that was ruled a no contest as well,” said Hearn. “Because I was sadly scrolling through BoxRec just looking at Francisco Rodriguez, and I noticed his fight before Galal Yafai was a no contest. I spoke to the Texas Commission and they confirmed he failed a drugs test for that fight.
“I spoke to Mauricio Sulaiman [the WBC president] last night; he said he didn’t know anything about it. I believe him. But let’s look at this, he’s failed back-to-back drug tests on the night and he’s gone 12 rounds with Galal Yafai in a fight that physically damaged Galal Yafai. In two weeks, to just rule that it was accidental, he can just come back and have a rematch, is so bizarre. I’ve been through that process with Conor Benn. It took two years to get a decision.
“Also, I believe fighters should get the opportunity to explain themselves, but I don’t believe that can happen without a B-sample, in a two-week period and you can just say, ‘Yeah, no problem. Let’s run it back.’ So I think now with the news coming out from the Texas commission as well, this could change everything, and I believe Galal should be installed as the mandatory challenger.”
Asked whether Yafai wanted a rematch, Hearn said it was down to the fighter
The Morales bout, at Boeing Center in San Antonio, was changed to a “no decision” on December 6.
And British Boxing Board of Control head Robert Smith said the WBC’s statement yesterday was not in any way linked to them or the judgment they will pass down.
“UKAD are working on it on our behalf, so they are looking at the case now,” said Smith.
“Nobody informed us [of the previous test results] and we’d been given all of the normal documentation; that’s something we’re going to have to look into. If we had a boxer going abroad, we would have notified the commission.”
