The World Boxing Council, which has been at the forefront of drug testing among boxing's sanctioning organizations, completed implementation of its Clean Boxing Program on Tuesday and dropped a number of notable fighters from its rankings for failing to enroll.
Among the 25 boxers the WBC dumped from its October ratings, which were released on Tuesday, are former heavyweight titleholder David Haye; former light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal; junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan; welterweight contenders Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson, both former junior welterweight titleholders; junior lightweight contender Yuriorkis Gamboa, a former unified featherweight titleholder; and top prospect lightweight Felix Verdejo.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman and Dr. Margaret Goodman, president of the Las Vegas-based Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, which was contracted by the WBC to oversee random drug testing for its fights, announced the program on May 5 in Las Vegas. Under the program, all of the WBC's world titleholders and the fighters ranked in the top 15 of all 17 weight classes were required to enroll in the program, which means they can be randomly drug tested -- from blood and/or urine -- at any time, 365 days per year.
The enrollment period was extended from mid-September, with the final cutoff on Tuesday.
"The work to get this program started has been monumental, and the WBC wishes to thank all those WBC members, promoters, managers and many others who have actively worked to enroll all fighters," Sulaiman said. "There have been some problems, mostly with translation and language barriers, and there will certainly be adjustments during the process. There will be additional adjustments, and this will be an evolving program, with the goal to provide as much protection to our athletes worldwide."
Within 15 days of the publication of the monthly rankings, new fighters entering the top 15 in any weight class must fulfill all mandatory requirements necessary to enter the program or they will be removed from the rankings and ineligible to fight for any WBC-affiliated title until properly enrolled.
"The WBC is proud of its champions and challengers who have taken a step forward in this historic process to keep our sport clean and, most importantly, to look out for the health of our athletes and the integrity and honorability of our sport," Sulaiman said.
The rest of the 25 fighters who did not enroll and were dropped: super middleweight Jose Uzcategui; middleweight Gabriel Rosado; junior middleweight Daquan Arnett; junior welterweight Rances Barthelemy; lightweight Emiliano Marsili; lightweight Hank Lundy; featherweight Hairon Socarras; junior featherweight Cesar Juarez; junior featherweight Edivaldo Ortega; bantamweight Emanuel Navarrete; flyweight Gideon Buthelezi; flyweight Brian Viloria; junior flyweight Moises Calleros; flyweight Javier Mendoza; junior flyweight Angel Acosta; strawweight Janiel Rivera; strawweight Carlos Buitrago; and strawweight Simphiwe Khonco.