Wilder’s lawsuit that could clean up combat sports

Deontay Wilder is suing Alexander Povetkin for $5 million for testing positive for a banned substance and having their fight cancelled. If he wins that sets a precedent for a serious penalty that would make using banned substances way too big of a risk in boxing.

What’s the worst that happens to a fighter who tests positive for a performance enhancing drug? They get a couple month suspension, have their fight canceled, and their legacy questioned, maybe get a slight fine. In combat sports, the reward for using banned substances out weights the punishment. But Deontay Wilder has filed a lawsuit against Alexander Povetkin that might end up cleaning out combat sports of performance enhancing drugs.

Wilder was scheduled to fight mandatory challenger Povetkin in Moscow, Russia on May 21, 2016. For going to Moscow, Wilder was guaranteed $4,504,500. But the fight did not happen. Povetkin tested positive for the banned substance meldonium, forcing the fight to be canceled and costing Wilder the biggest payday of his career.

On June 13, Wilder officially filed a $5 million lawsuit against Russian promoter Andrey Rybinsky and heavyweight contender Alexander Povetkin for breach of contract and monetary damages related to the cancellation of the fight.

If Wilder wins his lawsuit, a new precedent will be set that fighters who test positive for banned substances and have their fights canceled will be subject to having to pay their opponent the money they would have earned for the fight. That is significant. Not only will Povetkin lose his nearly $2 million purse for the fight, he may have to pay out another $5 million to Wilder. That is an expensive penalty to pay for using a banned substance.

And if that precedent is set, fights might not risk taking those banned substances and it could clean out the sport.

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Corey Johns

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You could say Corey was born to become a sports journalist. His father won a national championship coaching college soccer. His mother is a baseball fanatic who hasn't missed seeing an Orioles game since 1983 (literally, sometimes it's annoying). His great uncle was a big-time boxing promoter and his maternal grandfather was once a department head at the Baltimore Sun. Basically, sports and journalism run through his blood. He played just about every little league sports there was when he was a kid and was a multi-sport athlete in high school; even playing in the first-ever high school sanction Rugby game in the country. Eventually he retired from sports as an undefeated Maryland state Rugby champion as a high school senior. Perhaps lack of athletic talent has more to do with the retirement, but he will tell you that it more had to do with a great desire to jump right into media. Upon his graduation from University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a triple communications major, Corey started the So Much Sports network and has continued to grow his websites and continues to work to make them premier sports media outlets.

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