Jean Pascal Testing Positive For More Drugs
There’s an old saying, “If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying” and current WBA “Regular” Light Heavyweight titleholder Jean Pascal for sure wasn’t slacking this time out.
Pascal who was already unable to compete due to a failed drug test that was reported last week for three banned substances can add a fourth one he failed per a report by Dan Rafael for Ring Magazine.
Rafael wrote that a source with direct intel of the failed test result noted that Pascal tested positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin, which is better known as “EPO.”
What is EPO? It’s a performance-enhancing drug most United for being illegal and caught in athletes such as Lance Armstrong and most recently former UFC champion T.J. Dillashaw
Last week, Pascal had test results come back positive from samples provided on May 14 and 17th. They were positive for a trio of banned substances – Drostanolone, Drostanolone metabolite, and Epitrenbolone. The positive test results caused Pascal’s secondary light heavyweight world title defense against former two-division world titlist Badou Jack to be canceled. Jack instead is facing as a late replacement Dervin Corina, this Sunday.
Test results for EPO have a short window for detection and take longer to get than for results for the other substances Pascal was positive for. That is the reason those other results were returned sooner than the one for EPO last week.
Amazing how the tables have turned on Pascal from when he was shouting at Bernard Hopkins about taking the drug test before their bout in 2011.
“I am shocked and embarrassed. I would never voluntarily take illegal substances,” Pascal said in a statement posted to social media last week. “I’ve always fought for a clean sport and will continue to do so. I’m one of the first modern boxers to insist on random testing and I’ve passed countless tests during my 13 years at the highest level of boxing. I want to assure all my fans that this is an isolated incident and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to prove it.”
While Pascal joins Jarrell Miller and not in a good way with this failed test, we’ll see how long he is unable to compete in the ring because of this but at age 38 it would be hard-pressed to say that his last action in the ring was at least a fun one winning against Jack in Atlanta in 2019. Shame this cloud of taking illegal substances will be the last memories from Pascal in what was a long boxing career.
Marquis Johns is a unknown humorist and avid boxing fan. His love for the sweet science goes back to when matches were 15 rounds and has been covering fights since closed-circuit pay-per-views. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth is not only a quote by Mike Tyson, it's also a pretty good reminder to keep your guard up.
