The WBC has opted not to suspend Francisco Rodriguez after his brutal 12-round beatdown of Galal Yafai.
Rodriguez’s post-fight drugs test through VADA and the WBC’s Clean Boxing Program detected the stimulant heptaminol.
Instead, the WBC have placed Rodriguez on a 12-month probation period, changed the result of the bout to a no contest and reinstated the Olympic gold medalist Yafai as their interim champion after Rodriguez claimed the belt from him in June. They have also ordered a rematch.
Because the bout happened under the jurisdiction of the British Boxing Board of Control, however, Team Rodriguez must await the verdict of the governing body of the sport in the UK.
Rodriguez set CompuBox records in the process of his resounding victory. Yafai, 32, had to go to hospital and took around two weeks to recover from the loss, which marked his first defeat as a professional.
VADA collected the sample from Rodriguez on fight night, after the bout in Birmingham in June. The WBC said that they carried out an investigation “of the specific circumstances, health concerns, and legal precedent surrounding the adverse finding in light of the governing WBC rules and regulations and WBC CBP protocol”.
The sanctioning body also explained: “After a thorough factual and scientific review of the adverse finding, and considering champion Rodriguez’s admission of the circumstances of his non-intentional ingestion of a banned substance, and the fact that Mr Rodriguez had reported in his WBC CBP registration document the use of an over-the-counter energy booster which label included two banned substanced [sic], the WBC and champion Rodriguez agreed to enter into an adjudication agreement.”
The WBC ruled that the ingestion was “accidental, unintentional, unknowing and not directed to enhance performance”.
They are also placing Rodriguez, 33, on “probation status” for 12 months from the date of the sample collection.
One member of Yafai’s team called the ruling “absolutely ridiculous”, while one of Galal’s brothers Gamal, a retired fighter, took to social media to write: “A 12-month ban and a rematch… couldn’t write it and what a load of conmen.”
