Dillian Whyte to reemerge on Ruiz-Johsua undercard?

It looks like disgraced British heavyweight Contender Dillian Whyte is going to try to skirt a suspension for a positive drug test and be placed on the undercard of the Andy Ruiz – Anthony Joshua World Heavyweight Title fight coming December 7th in Saudi Arabia.

This was according to cryptic comments from Matchroom Boxing promoter, Eddie Hearn, this weekend.

There is suddenly a prominent vacancy on the undercard of the show after former World Champ Scott Quigg suffered an elbow injury and his Super Bantamweight title fight with Jono Carroll is off.

And Hearn volunteered that 31 year old Whyte will likely step in and fight another contender, in place of that.

This would come five months after Whyte (26-1, 18 KOs) secretly tested positive in voluntary pre-fight drug screening for performance-enhancing drugs prior to his main event PPV showdown in London with Oscar Rivas on July 20th. Whyte’s camp and Hearn never notified Rivas or anyone else of learning Whyte’s positive test, which occurred three days before the bout. They contend that the positive test could be kept private, because of the appeal process.

Whyte went on to win a 12-round decision and then, the news of the positive test became public.

Since that time, Whyte and his team have refused to participate in the testing of Whyte’s “B sample,” which would likely confirm the original findings prior to the fight. The British boxing Board of Control  (BBBC) has not formally ruled or suspended Whyte over the course of the last five months.

It is common practice for the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) and other drug governing bodies, to take the evading of taking a test or failing to participate in the appeal process (like Whyte has done), as the same as a positive test. And then, they would proceed with a suspension.

Damaging Whyte’s believability is he also failed a post-fight drug test for banned stimulants in October of 2012.

Now, if Whyte is going to fight within the same calendar year somewhere outside of the U.K., he has successfully made a mockery of the process and the likely possible suspension, by the BBOC’s inaction.

There’s obviously a huge financial motivation for Hearn, Matchroom, and Whyte, as he was holding number one contender status for the WBC that could have resulted in a possible title shot with Deontay Wilder. However, The WBC disavowed Whyte’s top status in early August announced just last week that Whyte has been replaced by Tyson Fury as their #1 contender.

As it stands right now, Wilder and Fury will rematch in February, provided that Wilder wins his current rematch at the end of this month with Luis Ortiz in Las Vegas. So therefore, the earliest Whyte could be on the radar for a possible title shot with Wilder, or potentially Fury if he wins, would be later next year.

There’s also the possibility that the winner of Ruiz – Joshua would want to fight Whyte sometime in 2020. However, Joshua already has a title defense 7th round TKO win over Whyte in 2015 and wouldn’t have much motivation to fight him, again.

There’s also the very real possibility that Ruiz or Joshua may be stripped of the WBO version of the title, if their next fight is not against that organization’s mandatory challenger or a fighter of their choosing. It is believed that Oleksandr Usyk may end up fighting for that vacant WBO belt, if that scenario plays out.

And, it remains to be seen if Whyte or Derek Chisora may end up being the opponent for Usyk. Whyte holds a knockout victory over Chisora earlier in their careers, as well.

Now, we wait to see if Hearn follows through and what opponent he potentially finds for Whyte, while the positive PED test looms over him.