Tweet
Junior middleweight contender Sechew Powell, stunningly upset last week by Deandre Latimore, has another problem besides just being knocked out.
Powell tested positive for marijuana in his post-fight drug test and has been suspended for 60 days by the New York State Athletic Commission, according to Seminole Warriors Boxing, Powell's promoter.
"Sechew did fail the drug test after the fight," Warriors executive director Leon Margules told ESPN.com on Wednesday night. "We're disappointed."
After Powell's suspension ends, he won't be cleared to fight until he submits to another drug test and it comes back clean, according to Margules.
Powell, a 29-year-old southpaw from Brooklyn, N.Y., had been the mandatory challenger for 154-pound titleholder Verno Phillips going into his June 11 fight with the unheralded Latimore.
It was supposed to be a tuneup fight for Powell (23-2, 14 KOs) before an eventual title shot, but Latimore proved to be a tough opponent. They were even on all three scorecards through six rounds before Latimore scored a seventh-round TKO in the ESPN2 "Wednesday Night Fights" main event in New York.
Powell had become the mandatory challenger by stopping Terrance Cauthen in the fourth round of an elimination bout on Dec. 5, 2007.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
Comment