Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom has found himself in the middle of several drug testing scandals in the last twelve months.
Hearn is still dealing with the ongoing legal drama surrounding unbeaten welterweight contender Conor Benn, who tested positive in two separate drug tests last year.
Two weeks ago, heavyweight Dillian Whyte tested positive for a performance enhancing drug and was immediately removed from a scheduled pay-per-view rematch with Anthony Joshua.
And on Wednesday night, it was revealed that undisputed super featherweight champion Alycia Baumgardner had tested positive for two banned substances in connection to her July 15 rematch with Christina Linardatou in Detroit.
Baumgardner, who openly proclaimed her innocence, explained that she came up clean on a test administered on June 16 and also tested clean on fight night. The positive sample was taken on July 12.
Hearn detailed that his company is investing more money into drug testing fighters on a more consistent basis – and as a result there will be an increase in fighters coming up with adverse tests.
“I did an interview yesterday and someone said to me ‘obviously a lot of people will point the finger at Matchroom.’ I said ‘for what?’ If you want the sport to be a safer sport… I’m not looking for a pat on the back… but you should want as much testing as possible across as many fights as possible in the sport. That’s what we are trying to implement. And it’s not a competition against other promotional companies – it’s fact that we’re the only promotional company investing anywhere near this level into testing to try and make the sport as clean as possible,” Hearn told IFL TV.
“Alycia Baumgardner, who we’ve represented for a long time, she had a test on one side of it that she passed and she had a test a couple of days later on fight night that she passed. But still, she has to explain herself in this process. And we’ll support her in this process, and I hope that she can prove her innocence here, absolutely.
“But we want to make sure there is as much testing as possible. Unfortunately, this would be the case across all sports…. if you ramp up the testing and intensify the number of fighters who are being tested on a regular basis, you will find more analytical findings. It’s simple. So, if we didn’t do any testing like other promoters, we wouldn’t have any cases – but we do. And unfortunately you go to other main events, fighters aren’t being tested, etc. We’re not perfect, but we’re trying to continuously invest in testing. And there’s a lot more to come as well, about programs that we’re trying to implement to make the sport as safe as possible.”