Matt Maher: Boxing is too savage to be so shambolic on the subject of doping
Galal Yafai’s flyweight contest with Francisco Rodriguez Junior in June was 12 rounds of almost entirely one-sided brutality.
For 12 rounds at Birmingham’s BP Pulse Arena, hometown hero and Olympic champion Yafai was battered around the ring by his Mexican opponent.
By the end of the eighth round, it felt like the fight had been going on for eight years. In nearly two decades covering boxing, rarely has this reporter felt so uncomfortable sitting at ringside.
Frankly, you just wanted it to stop. You couldn’t understand why those in Yafai’s corner didn’t pull him out when any chance of a victory was long lost. You wondered what the long-term effects of this beating - there really is no other word which feels appropriate - might be, both for Yafai’s future career and most importantly of all, his health.
At the same time, you marvelled at Rodriguez’s relentlessness as he ripped the WBC interim title away from the home fighter’s grasp. Statistics later showed the 32-year-old had thrown more than 1,000 “power” punches, twice as many as his opponent, landing more than half. In the 12th round, he looked just as sharp as he had in the first.
How on earth had he managed it, you asked? It took only a few more weeks to learn.
On July 9, it was announced Rodriguez had returned an adverse finding for the heart drug heptaminol, a banned substance, in a post-fight test conducted by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (Vada).
Barely a fortnight later, on July 26, the WBC published its ruling, claiming that after an investigation which included a series of behind-closed doors meetings with Rodriguez and his team, it had determined the fighter’s ingestion of the substance was “non-intentional” and caused by taking an over-the-counter energy booster.
