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World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman is supporting Alejandra “Tigre” Jiménez, who disagrees with the recent ruling to remove her recognition as the WBC super middleweight champion.
On January 11 in Texas, Jimenez won a decision over Franchon Crews-Dazurn to capture the WBC, WBO super middleweight titles.
Jimenez had previously held the WBC’s heavyweight title and shed a lot of weight to drop down to a weight limit where there was a bigger pool of potential opponents.
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But not long after that win, testing agency VADA revealed that one of Jimenez’s tests came back with an adverse finding for the banned steroid Stanozolol.
In March, the WBO removed her of their title and returned their belt to Crews-Dezurn.
The Texas Commission changed the fight’s outcome to a no-contest.
The WBC continued to push through with a full investigation that played out for several months.
Earlier this week, they finally came down with a ruling to return the title to Crews-Dezurn and they suspended Jimenez for nine months.
Jimenez maintains that she never knowingly ingested a banned substance and refuses to stand down from recognizing herself as the beltholder.
Sulaiman believes Jimenez is telling the truth.
“I personally believe her, in her testimonies of innocence, science has not been able to demonstrate how the positive test came about. She has four negatives and one positive in this process, it is the mystery in this doping issue. I am convinced that Alejandra Jiménez is going to return and test her ability and quality as an athlete. I trust her, I am very sorry because it was a great positive story of motivation and inspiration for many,” Sulaiman told Marca Claro.
“These are situations that must be followed by the regulations. She voluntarily joined and participated [in our drug testing program], she is a constant promoter of health, but it is the regulation [of our program], it is the facts. What is at hand is the evaluation made by the experts. I have talked with her, the WBC considers her to be a part of the family and we will unconditionally support her.
“[This experience will give her] extra motivation, she has to remake her career. She is going to be up against it for a while but we will be with her. I spoke with her and we’ll use her story to share with others boxers.”