LUIS ORTIZ HAS failed a drug test just over a month out from his WBC World heavyweight title fight with Deontay Wilder.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman announced the news on Twitter this morning that Cuban talent Ortiz (27-0, 23 KOs), formerly promoted by Eddie Hearn, had tested positive for a banned substance during a routine check-up by VADA as part of the governing body’s Clean Boxing Programme.
@WBCBoxing has received confirmation from @Vada_Testing that Luis Ortiz has tested positive for a banned substance under #CleanBoxingProgram
— Mauricio Sulaiman (@wbcmoro) September 29, 2017
It’s currently unclear as to whether Ortiz’s world title bout with Wilder, scheduled for Barclays Centre, Brooklyn on 4 November, will go ahead as planned.
Ortiz was previously banned for eight months in 2014, having tested positive for Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, in a urine sample provided prior to his first-round knockout of Lateef Kayode.
Wary of the Cuban’s history with PEDs, Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) warned Ortiz not to ‘fuck up’ their highly anticipated fight during last week’s press conference.
“I would’ve been up for that challenge years ago, when we first brought this up,” Wilder said last Wednesday. “But we already know what happened. So this time, Luis Ortiz, don’t fuck it up! Stay clean, because we’ll be checking. Stay clean. Don’t fuck this up for me, nor you, because I’m gonna prove to the world that I am the best.
“I pray to God that don’t happen,” Wilder later added. “That’s a big concern of mine. But if he do [take PEDs], I will know. I’ve got people all over the world. If he do, I will know if he’s cheating. I will know if he’s doing PEDs. A lot of these guys in the heavyweight division does it. They don’t even know. They don’t even know. I know. I know. But I ain’t here to rat ‘em out.
“My thing is, the advice is because the heavyweight division is so small, my thing is to just advise them and give them advice. Stop it. Just stop. Just stop. Just go off of your own natural ability and just work yourself up there. Don’t stick no needles, don’t take no pills, or act like you didn’t know what was in there, or you didn’t know they were putting [it in there]. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Just stop it. People wanna have that come-up because they seen other former champions that done it, and get caught – or become champ, and then get caught. Because a lot of them don’t get caught.”
Ortiz is the third Wilder opponent in the past 16 months to fail a drug test.
His team, however, have told BoxingScene and BoxeCubano that they’re adamant this failed test is a direct result of his taking Losartan/HCTZ (Hydrochlorothiazide). Losartan is a drug typically prescribed to treat high blood pressure and kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes, with Ortiz reportedly suffering from the former.
BoxeoCubano have obtained images of the letter supposedly sent to Ortiz by VADA informing the Cuban of his failed test, in which it’s stated his ‘A’ sample has tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide and chlorothiazide.
They have also published an image of pills prescribed to Ortiz, the label on which reads, ‘Losartan’.
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