He was going to be a challenger at the World Cup, gave doping and animated a boxing festival against drugs: how it went to Jarrell Miller

Some will see this as a contradiction. Others will see it as a (last) chance for redemption. The first night of action of the 38th edition of the festival KO to drugsorganized by the World Boxing Association (WBA) in Buenos Aires, it marked the return to the ring of the frustrated world heavyweight challenger Jarrell Miller after almost four years of inactivity and as many positive for doping controls. One of them opened the door the biggest blow the sport has delivered in the past three decades.

The 33-year-old American defeated on points by unanimous decision in Buenos Aires (based in La Cumbre) Ariel Lowercase Bracamonte, South American champion of the top division, in a fight that took place at the Casino Buenos Aires, in the neighborhood of Puerto Madero. In a duel that kept the audience waiting throughout the 10 rounds, the Big baby showed slowness and low aerobic capacity, understandable after such a stop, but also power and sparkle in its class.

The North American mastodon, who had registered at the weigh-in on Wednesday 155 kiloswas much taller and more than once the former Argentine monarch moved (138,570 kilos), whose greatest merit was to stand up at the final bell. The cards of the three judges marked 97-92 and so the visitor, who took a point discount in the fourth round for a low blow, added his 24th victory (20 before the limit) for a curriculum that has as its only blemish the draw against Joey Dawejko, at his fifth start in rent.

One thousand three hundred fourteen days They had passed since Miller’s last victory, on November 17, 2018 against Romanian Bogdan Dinu, in what had been his last fight before this landing in Buenos Aires. Y 1164 days had passed by the American he had missed the most important sporting opportunity of his life And it had seriously jeopardized his career.

On April 16, 2019, the Brooklyn-born boxer, then second in the WBA heavyweight rankings and third in the World Boxing Organization, was preparing to face Anthony Joshua on June 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York for the titles of those two. organizations and that of the International Boxing Federation, all owned by the British.

On that day, the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) reported that traces of GW1516, a prohibited metabolite that improves aerobic capacity and endurance, had been detected in the urine sample that Miller had delivered on March 20 and that according to the studies Test laboratory may have carcinogenic effects. Twenty-four hours later, the New York State Athletics Commission denied the boxer the license he needed to face Joshua.

On top of that, three days after the first announcement, the VADA reported that Miller also tested positive in a blood sample and a urine sample taken on March 31. In the first, traces of HGH, a hormone for increasing muscle mass, were found; in the second, still GW1516 and also traces of erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that increases the production of red blood cells (and, therefore, the presence of oxygen in the blood).

even if then evaded a fine for administrative verification (at the time of the positive test he did not have a valid boxing license), Miller lost the opportunity to fight for the title and also to collect the most important bag of his career: nearly five million dollars.

The need to find an emergency replacement to act as a partner in Joshua’s US debut has led Matchroom Boxing, the fight organizer, to use the unknown Andrea Ruizwho in the March rankings had appeared 11th in the WBA and 15th in the IBF (the WBO did not even include him in its rankings).

The outcome of that part of the story is known: the Mexican-American knocked out Joshua in the seventh roundafter both fell in the third chapter, he kept his three belts and signed the biggest success in elite boxing since James’ victory debunters Douglas faces Mike Tyson on February 11, 1990 in Tokyo.

The less visible fraction of the story was the one that sees the protagonist Miller, who had already registered a positive in June 2014 when he competed in kickboxing (in that case, for the consumption of methylhexaneamine, a drug that acts as a stimulant and helps lose weight). weight) and had served a nine-month suspension. The New Yorker carried the doping cross for several months until in 2020 he had his first chance for redemption.

In January of the same year he signed a contract with the promoter Top Rank who, due to the coronavirus pandemic, could only schedule his return for July 9 in Las Vegas against Jerry Forrest in a fight that would be the main attraction of an evening that would take place in the bubble that the company of veteran Bob Arum had set up at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

However, another drug test halted plans two weeks before the contest. The substance that caused this positive was once again GW1516. Miller was automatically banned from the card and this time the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) temporarily suspended his license.

The boxer shouted his innocence in front of anyone who wanted to hear him. In September of that year, he stated that the last positive was a consequence of ingesting a male sexual stimulant and that those of 2019 had been due to the application of a stem cell injection in one of his elbows. Even more: he has assured that he has never consumed substances to improve his sports performance. “Everyone wants to point the finger and hear who speaks louder, but not everyone has the correct information”held.

His public arguments failed to displace the NSAC, which suspended him on December 2, 2020. within two years (calculable from the date of the last positive control), with the possibility of a reduction of six months in case of undergoing a treatment program against sports performance enhancing drugs as well as a regimen of random tests administered by the VADA.

A few days later, the Big baby He began to undergo random tests ordered by the NSAC, although at that moment it was still a chimera to think of a return to the ring. “I’m going to pee in this damn cup even though I don’t even know if I want to keep boxing. I could become a rapper or I could play (American) football,” he assured as he streamed that first test through his Instagram Live channel.

Neither the rhymes nor the oval ball ended up seducing him. And 18 months after urinating in that damn glass, Miller returned to fight, summoned by the WBA to participate in the KO to drugsa program started in September 1993 on the initiative of its then president, Gilberto Mendoza, continued by decision of Gilbertico Mendoza, his son and successor, and whose purpose is to assist organizations from different parts of Latin America that seek to retain young people away from problematic consumption.

Titles for all tastes.

The second day of KO to drugs at the Casino de Buenos (TyC Sports will air from 23:35) will have as its main attraction this Friday the fight in which the porteña Clara Lescurat I will try to take away WBA super flyweight world title to the Mexican Maribel Ramirez.

The boxer from Villa del Parque (now based in Escobar), who for seven years was part of the Argentine team, won all six fights (three before the limit) in which he has starred since his professional debut just 14 months ago. Her latest, in March of hers against Panamanian Nataly Delgado, allowed her to win the 115-pound gold title and opened the door to this World Cup possibility.

Its rival, the Panther Ramírez, 35 and holder of a modest record of 13 wins, 9 defeats and 3 draws, will exhibit for the third time the crown he won in May 2018, when he defeated Peruvian Linda Lecca in Lima, and which he defended by defeating the Japanese Aniya Seki and drawing with Chilean Daniela Asenjo in a highly controversial decision.

Two other former national team members will compete tonight for WBA regional titles: Buenos Aires Brian Suarez will face the Venezuelan Albert Ramirez from the continental Americas of the mid-maximum division, which is vacant, and from the Entrerrian Leandro Bianco Fedelatin will exhibit the light flyweights against the Mexican German Valenzuela.

Also, the Cuban Paolo Vincenzo and Colombian Manuel Filippo Gonzalez They will be measured for the international super featherweight title. Sanjuanino will complete the billboard Fabiano Orozco and the Mexican Jorge Ascanio Martinezwho will face off for six rounds in a framed duel in the super bantamweight division.