WBO issues show-cause notice to Dennis McCann following adverse finding
The WBO Thursday issued a show-cause notice to its No. 3-ranked junior-featherweight Dennis McCann, who was forced off a Dec. 21 Riyadh Season card after an adverse finding for banned performance-enhancing drugs.
The WBO’s world championship committee will give England’s 24-year-old McCann, 16-0-1 (8 KOs), 30 days to explain the matter that scrapped his scheduled bout against Peter McGrail.
McCann has been afforded the time to answer to the tests discovered by the Voluntary Anti Doping Association and announced by Saudi Arabia fight broker Turki Alalshikh.
WBO President Gustavo Olivieri wrote that McCann will need to inform his sanctioning body why the WBO should not declare the WBO Inter-Continental junior-featherweight championship vacant, exclude him from the WBO 122-pound rankings, impose a rankings ban on him for no less than two years and issue “any other ruling deemed appropriate.”
Failure to comply, added the WBO, will allow the committee to proceed accordingly.
Lance Pugmire has been a full-time boxing writer for nearly 20 years, serving now as BoxingScene’s U.S. Senior Writer and assistant producer for ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today.” Pugmire capped a near 20-year career at the Los Angeles Times (sports investigations, NHL/MLB beat work, law enforcement/courts and boxing/UFC) to join The Athletic, and then USA Today. Pugmire’s stint at The Times started with the first Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez fight and the Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jnr then-record pay-per-view, leading through a slew of ringside assignments at major bouts, including Mayweather-Pacquiao, Mayweather-Canelo and the Canelo-Golovkin trilogy. Lance’s appreciation for boxing is rooted in his admiration and appreciation for the fighters, gladiators who have proven to be the most forthcoming and candid of all the athletes he has interviewed over a career dating to 1990. Lance was honored to be named the 2022 winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence and he’s collected many BWAA writing awards in categories ranging from breaking news to deep-dive long features.
