Just a day before his appearance on the Andy Ruiz Jr.-Anthony Joshua undercard against Poland’s Mariusz Wach, Dillian Whyte has released a joint statement with UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) with regards to the drug test he failed ahead of his July victory over Oscar Rivas. In it, UKAD reveal that they have withdrawn the charge and cleared Whyte of wrongdoing, attributing the failure to contamination.
Their argument, in bullet-point form:
There is nothing in Mr Whyte’s longitudinal urinary profile to suggest that he has used steroids.
The levels of the metabolites found in Mr Whyte’s 20 June 2019 sample were extremely low.
Mr Whyte had provided a urine sample to VADA on 17 June 2019, i.e. 3 days before his 20 June 2019 sample, which was tested by a WADA-accredited laboratory and which returned a negative result, including for the metabolites in question.
Mr Whyte provided several other doping control samples to UKAD and VADA between 20 June and 20 July 2019 (i.e. the date of his fight with Oscar Rivas) – all of which also tested negative.
In light of the above points, the trace amounts of metabolites found in the 20 June 2019 sample are consistent with an isolated contamination event, and they are not suggestive of doping.
UKAD also asserted that the minute quantity of the two steroids “could not have affected the fight between Mr Whyte and Mr Rivas on 20 July 2019.” Further, “Mr Whyte provided further evidence in his defence.”
The timeline of non-positive test does lend credence to UKAD’s argument, though I’m by no means an experts on doping cycles or the half-lives of the substances involved. This does not, however, excuse the organization failing to inform Rivas or his team of the failure before fight night.
Between this and the Furys’ drug test shenanigans, UKAD has proven itself among the least respectable agencies in the business, and I say that as someone who’s watched USADA screw over UFC fighters with clockwork regularity over the past few years.