PHOENIX: Top Rank boss Bob Arum told ProBox TV on Friday that he’s “concerned” about recent positive tests in boxing.
Arum spoke to us after a weigh-in ahead of his firm’s next show Saturday at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, which will be broadcast on ESPN.
The main event features a WBO junior lightweight world title bout between defending champion Emanuel Navarette and the challenger Oscar Valdez, who tested positive for a prohibited stimulant in 2021.
More recently, there have been a number of positive tests involving prominent British boxers Amir Khan, Conor Benn, and Dillian Whyte.
ProBox TV asked Arum if it is a cause for alarm.
“I’m always concerned when the fighters don’t pass drug tests,” he told us.
Khan was handed a two-year ban from all sport earlier this year after testing positive for ostarine in 2022.
Benn failed two separate voluntary drug tests for clomifene in 2022 but has protested his innocence from the outset.
Whyte, meanwhile, was due to box Anthony Joshua on the same night as Top Rank’s Navarrete-Valdez show, but was pulled from the show after he “returned adverse analytical findings as part of a random anti-doping protocol,” according to a statement from the event promoter Matchroom at the time.
It is the third time in Whyte’s career that he posted a positive result.
“That is not good for the sport,” Arum said.
