Andrey Ryabinsky files $34.5 million dollar lawsuit against Deontay Wilder

Now this is just getting silly.

Less than two weeks after WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder filed suit against Alexander Povetkin and his management for breach of contract, "Russian Vityaz" and his team at World of Boxing have filed their own claim, seeking $34.5 million for both breach of contract and defamation.

In short, Team Povetkin is sticking to their claims that the meldonium in their fighter’s system was left over from before the drug was banned, citing a minuscule concentration of 0.07 mL/mg.

From their statement:

...the US side hurriedly made a public statement about the fight being cancelled and ran to the press accusing the Russian boxer of taking banned drugs and lying about it. Similar statements were published repeatedly in the press.

Andrey Ryabinsky, head of World of Boxing: "The Wilder side has behaved in an unsporting and disrespectful way. I’m convinced they did this deliberately, because they were afraid of the fight with Povetkin. But we will not let this pass unchallenged."

It’s too bad the High Sparrow had to nix trial by combat, otherwise this whole mess could be resolved in a universally-satisfactory manner.