Alberto Puello will remain without his title or a fight for at least one more month.
The five-member Nevada State Athletic Commission panel voted unanimously to extend the temporary suspension of the unbeaten Dominican during its monthly agenda hearing held Wednesday at state headquarters in Las Vegas. Puello was previously placed under suspension after producing a positive drug test for the banned substance Clomiphene from a sample collected by Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) on April 5 and discovered on April 19. The commission voted to table the matter until the next monthly agenda hearing on a yet-to-be-scheduled June date.
The drug testing folly saw Puello (21-0, 10KOs) removed from a scheduled May 13 Showtime main event versus Rolando Romero (15-1, 13KOs). He was due to make the first defense of his WBA junior welterweight title, which was removed from his possession as he was downgraded to ‘Champion in Recess.’
Romero went on to win the vacant title via controversial ninth-round stoppage of mandatory challenger Ismael Barroso (24-4-2, 22KOs), who replaced Puello atop last weekend’s Showtime-televised tripleheader.
Puello and his team have acknowledged the April 5 drug test and have remained compliant in the ongoing investigation. He immediately provided an alibi for the substance found in his system, as he and his wife are now expecting a child.
“We already sent the evidence to the proper agencies,” Belgica Peña, Puello’s promoter, previously told Boxing Scene. “We have proof of the doctor visits, the hospital stays and his wife’s pregnancy.”
The extended hearing will keep Puello out of the ring, though the delay comes as the status of his old title is in disarray.
Romero already called for superfights with Ryan Garcia (23-1, 19KOs) and unbeaten box-office star and pound-for-pound entrant Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27KOs), who dealt the first defeat to both fighters. Davis scored a vicious, sixth-round knockout of Las Vegas’ Romero last May 28 in Brooklyn, New York and then twice dropped Garcia en route to a seventh-round knockout atop their April 22 blockbuster Showtime Pay-Per-View event in Las Vegas.
Romero was permitted to challenge for Puello’s title despite coming off a knockout defeat and as a lightweight. He was placed in the WBA Top 15 rankings at junior welterweight and approved as a challenger for a voluntary defense during the WBA’s annual convention last December in Orlando, Florida.
The winner was due to face Barroso, but Puello’s removal from the fight sped up the process.
Per a WBA ruling, Romero will have to next face England’s Ohara Davies. Puello will remain eligible to fight for his old title only if he is fully cleared by the Nevada commission, hence the need to extend the investigation to make sure all facts are thoroughly reviewed before the five-person panel renders its decision.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox