Trainer ‘Iceman’ John Scully assist's light heavyweight world champion Artur Beterbiev in his 20th professional battle Saturday, and had choice
The IBF, WBC and WBO belt holder at 175 pounds takes on England’s Callum Smith at the Center Videotron in Quebec City, Canada, as the Chechyan star attempts to maintain his 100 percent knockout ratio, his record standing at 19-0 (19 KOs).
But the fight week produced an unexpected narrative when, two days ago, reported Kevin Iole said on his site that the puncher posted an “atypical” VADA test result conducted in December.
Smith’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, told ProBox TV yesterday that he “wanted to know the reasons why” there was an atypical result for Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and 5D-androstanediol.
In response, Scully, also speaking to ProBox TV, said "it's childish."
Elaborating, he added: “I think a promoter sometimes runs out of stuff, there is only a couple of days left until the fight, they kinda just throw stuff out there. They do it for fun, just to give people something to talk about.
“If anything, that will be a compliment to Artur because everyone is wondering, how can a guy be this strong? It tells you inadvertently what is on their mind.
"In other words, if you said that guy is on steroids, it is not going to make a difference, but with Artur they think that he’s got to be on steroids because nobody on Earth can be that strong, and gets stronger as he goes. He’s that guy!"
Beterbiev has been cleared to fight tomorrow night despite Hearn’s worries with both teams ultimately happy to move ahead with the three belt world title fight.
“I’ve honestly never seen Artur out of shape,” Scully said. “With his mentality and his determination it is impossible for him to be out of shape. I’ve never seen him fat, overweight or even being lazy, nothing, nothing like that. He doesn’t do that.”
