Deontay Wilder’s WBC heavyweight title defense against Luis Ortiz on Nov. 4 was set to be the biggest fight in the final quarter of 2017. Now, the fight is in serious jeopardy.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, who is in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the organization’s annual convention, announced on Twitter late Thursday night that Ortiz failed a random drug test.
VADA president Dr. Margaret Goodman sent a letter to Sulaiman saying they administered a urine test to the Cuban boxer on Sept. 22 at his training facility in Miami. The results came back on Thursday and revealed Ortiz tested positive for the banned diuretics chlorothiazide and hydrochlorothiazide, which are used to treat high blood pressure but also can be used as masking agents for performance-enhancing drug use.
Sources have told Sporting News the fight is likely to be cancelled but are vigorously searching for a replacement on to face Wilder at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Nov. 4.
This is the second time the 38-year-old Ortiz has failed a drug test; In Sept. 2014, Ortiz failed a pre-fight drug test for the anabolic steroid, nandrolone. He scored an impressive first-round knockout over Lateef Kayode to capture the vacant WBA interim heavyweight title. The Nevada Athletic Commission changed the result to a no-contest, suspended Ortiz for eight months and was stripped of the title.
Concerns had been raised when this fight was first announced. Questions were raised of whether Ortiz would actually make it to Nov. 4. Wilder, who now has gone through three opponents who have failed drug tests in the last 18 months, originally wasn’t concerned about Ortiz failing a drug test as he was the one who wanted to face “The Real King Kong”.
“People may not believe this, but I am the one who wanted to face Ortiz,” Wilder told Sporting News on Sept. 28. “He is the guy no one in the heavyweight division wants to face. I told Al Haymon, Luis Ortiz is the guy I want to fight next. And Al Haymon went right to work and made it happen.
“A win over Luis Ortiz will quiet those who say I haven’t fought the toughest guys in the heavyweight division.”
Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs), 31, was set to face Alexander Povetkin in May 2016, but the Russian fighter tested positive for the banned substance, meldonium. Then in Febraury, Wilder had been set to face Andrzej Wawrzyk — Wawrzyk failed a drug test. Wilder still fought and scored a fifth-round knockout over Gerald Washington, Wawrzyk’s replacement in the bout.
