Eddie Hearn feels there is something “Rotten in Denmark” dealing with the UKAD and the BBBofC!
It’s now been two full weeks since the whistle-blowing story broke to the boxing world. The inflammatory piece alerted the international boxing community that Dillian “The Body Snatcher” Whyte failed a drug test administered by the UK Anti-Doping agency (UKAD).
Fourteen days later and the world is still waiting for answers. Oddly enough, ever since the story was released, Whyte’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has been glued to camera’s talking about the situation…kind of.
A MASTER FILABUSTERER AT WORK
Various persistent members of the media have asked him an extensive battery of questions, and Hearn has dutifully supplied a mountains worth of words. The trouble is, those words have had absolutely zero substance. The younger Hearn has proven to be a dynamo at deflection, over talking, denying and completely contradicting himself on the fly. Straight answers were fairly had to come by.
The only thing that we know now for certain, is the fact that Hearn is completely unable to say “no comment’!
The most recent pseudo Q & A session came from an interview conducted by Kugan Cassius, of IFL TV. Despite the interview lasting well over an hour, there is precious little information to be gleaned from the video. If anything, Hearn only manages to inspire new questions, more confusion and coyly ask the question, “why was he cleared,” about 600 times!
To begin, one of the most curious aspects of Hearn’s standpoint is the fact that he ardently maintains that he has no pertinent facts on the matter. By his account, Eddie Hearn does not know what the adverse finding is based on, he doesn’t know who was at the secret meeting, he doesn’t know what is being done with the B-sample and he doesn’t know how, or when, these proceedings will conclude.
Even more striking, Hearn stated that he had not spoken to any of the relevant parties, Whyte, UKAD or the BBBofC since the incident became a public matter.
“Since the fight I have not had any communication with UKAD, the Board or Dillan Whyte on this situation. It is totally a confidential case between them.
“Have I spoken to Dillian Whyte’s team? Yes! Not about the case, only the statement.
“The facts and you’ve got to get this out there. But he is being told do not do interviews and get this out there until we have cleared your name, because this is too important, this is, his career right now is in tatters and it may not be very soon.”
UKAD HAD THE DIRTY SAMPLE FOR A MONTH
Given this is currently the biggest scandal in the sport and if found guilty, there will likely be a river of lawsuits and legal backlash it would seem logical that Hearn would be abreast of the main facts.
He is Whyte’s promoter after all. If Hearn didn’t feel an iota of moral obligation to his client, you would think that professionalism would urge him to find out everything that is going on. However, this is far from the case.
“I have to say that in the history of what I know about drug testing, I don’t think the B-sample really deviates from the A-sample. So I don’t know whether that’s been tested.”
Yet, putting all this to the side, Hearn did allude to a bit of new information. Although this fresh intel, like everything else involved, only inspired more questions. Roughly 45 minutes into the probe, Hearn essentially revealed that UKAD had possession of the adverse test for a month before unveiling the information to Team Whyte.
“What I don’t agree was the test that he had was a month before we got the results! So there are certain things that I really don’t like in this situation and things that don’t make sense and these are things that will come out in the wash as well.”
No matter what angle you approach this from; the whole situation is a mess. The BBBofC clearly has some highly questionable, if not flat out shady, rules set in place. The fact that a fighter can pop dirty, be notified and conduct a whole clandestine trial without the opponent being made aware is outrageous.
Then there is Hearn, feigning ignorance in one breath then suggesting he has the facts and contradicting himself in the next. That has been an exercise in frustration. While he has claimed he has faith in Whyte, he is obviously trying to distance himself from this open and on-going investigation.
Which leads to yet another glaring and unanswered question: If Dillian Whyte was ‘cleared’ on July 20, why is there still an active investigation in play? Inquiring minds would like to know!
3kingsboxing will continue to monitor and report on this cumbersome and curious matter.
By: Bakari Simpson
