Alberto Puello's failed drug test will now see him removed from the WBA rankings.
This comes on the heels of Puello's scheduled junior welterweight WBA title defense against Rolando Romero being canceled due to the positive drug test result for clomiphene and its metabolites, which is considered a banned performance-enhancing drug.
The WBA took to Twitter to state the following.
Earlier this year, Puello's coach, Bob Santos spoke to ProBox TV News exclusively to shed more details on what is happening, and how this situation got to this point.
“What I do know is after he won the world championship he went to the Dominican Republic, had surgery, and was prescribed fertility drugs,” Santos told ProBox TV News. “[This was so] he could up his sperm count so he could have a kid. He had been married for seven years, and he has two kids that he has raised that are biologically not his. [He and his partner] were trying to have kids for the last couple of years, so that is why he went to have the surgery….the one bright note is his wife is now pregnant, but that being said, he didn’t put it on the papers for whatever the case may be, [miscommunication, mistranslation] I don’t know…it isn’t a case of him saying someone gave me something and I didn’t know what was in the meat, I didn’t know what was in the eggs. [Puello] said this is what I did, and I did it specifically to have a kid. The ramifications of whatever they choose to do, he is going to have to own up to that, and it is probably going to be a suspension, I don’t know for how long.”
Santos would follow up these statements by explaining even further that he felt that Puello would have beaten the current world champion.
“We definitely felt [Puello] would’ve beat Rolly [Romero],” said Santos reflecting on the fight that Puello was pulled from. “I think that was evident in the performance Rolly had. To me, Puello is the superior fighter. Taking nothing away from Rolly, because he does have a puncher’s chance, he can punch, I have seen him in the gym, multiple sparring situations. I have seen him put some quality names out. That being said, unless [Rolly] caught lightning in a bottle, [I don’t see] him beating Puello. It is a hard lesson to learn [for Alberto Puello].”
In place of Puello, Rolando "Rolly" Romero became the WBA junior welterweight champion after defeating Ismael Barroso, after a controversial stoppage in the ninth round. Romero now is the full champion, as until this ruling Puello was labeled as a champion-in-recess.
Ohara Davies is the mandatory challenger for Romero's bout, and signed with Golden Boy Promotions, on Monday.
Rumors of a potential fight between Romero and Ryan Garcia have circled the internet as well, but have so far been nothing, but rumors, as Romero first emerged as a famous fighter after some good rounds of sparring with Garcia that went viral.
It will be interesting to see what is next for Romero.
