EDDIE HEARN believes boxingโs fight against drugs can start at home with a new 24/7, year-round testing programme for all Matchroom fighters.
Hearn watched another of his companyโs biggest fights crash and burn after the results of a VADA test ruled Dillian Whyte out of a pay-per-view clash with Anthony Joshua, which was scheduled for this Saturday.
Joshua will instead box Robert Helenius at the o2 Arena at the weekend after a last-ditch deal to bring the big 39-year-old over from Finland.
The Matchroom boss is, therefore, acutely aware of how bad the issue of performance enhancing drugs is to the sport which pays the majority of his wages and is now looking for ways to solve it.
โWhat I started thinking about the other day, and I donโt know how this goes down with fighters,โ Hearn said. โIt costs around ยฃ30,000 per fight to test for VADA. Itโs generally about 12 tests during the period, right?
โSo 10 fights on the card, 300 grand to test, one show. Absolutely impossible. Do we look to introduce, for Matchroomโs credibility, and for the good of the sport, a testing pool? Like the UFC do but they do it with USADA, we would do it with VADA. Where we say, if you are a Matchroom fighter, you have to enroll in the VADA testing programme.
โI think the WBC Clean Boxing Programme is great, but itโs impossible for it to be extensive enough, because itโs so much money. But can we get to a level where if you sign up for Matchroom, you know youโre enrolled in this programme. I think thatโs a great look for boxing.โ
It was put to Hearn that this could be seen as a clear conflict of interest – where the results of Matchroomโs own test would directly impact on whether or not their shows can take place.
He countered: โItโs not a conflict of interest because in the contract it will be reported to the parties. We have the obligation to report it to the parties involved.โ
Some have argued, radio man Simon Jordan for instance, that this seems like Hearn just attempting to become both judge and jury. The promoter said: โWeโre not, like Simon Jordan says, looking to take disciplinary matters in our own hands. F**k off! I donโt want to take disciplinary matters into my own hands. We donโt even really want to get involved. We want other people to take that away from us.โ
Indeed, the problem of who is actually capable of punishing anyone appears to be the major one for boxing. If it was not hard enough to catch boxers at a time when they still have enough PEDs within their system to fail a test, it seems almost impossible for anyone to actually ban them when they do.
โThereโs the universal element of testing,โ Hearn adds. โWho deals with it? No one wants to deal with it because theyโre all petrified to deal with it and they all palm it off onto other people and say ‘oh, you deal with it, you deal with it’ and then you get to a situation where no one actually [does anything about it]ย thereโs no universal policy where it states: โIf you fail a drugs test with VADA, this is what happensโ. Because Commissions just donโt do that.โ
For now, Hearnโs idea might seem expensive and fanciful but it might at least demonstrate a willingness to change for, as he puts it, โ for the long-term future of the sportโ.
โThe problem is if I went to PBC and I went โright, Iโm going to create this testing pool for our fighters. Would you like to be included?โ Theyโd go โf**k off, Eddie. I donโt talk to you, you silly c**tโ.ย I go โall right, thenโ.
โBut we would have got our act in order and I think thatโs a great statement. I donโt know how the fighters feel about it becauseโฆ fighters are concerned about testing as a whole, contamination, making a mistake โ that can happen.
โSo it would be interesting for me to say to a fighter, welcome to the team and by the way, youโve got to sign up to this.โ