It is Artur Beterbiev’s return to the ring after almost a year out, yet an atypical drug test result overshadows it.
Beterbiev defends his WBC, WBO, and IBF light-heavyweight world title against Callum Smith on Saturday, January 13, live on ESPN, with implications of an undisputed fight after.
Yet Kevin Iole broke the news that Beterbiev had an atypical test result on December 6. Days prior he had a negative test result. Subsequent tests of Beterbiev all revealed a negative result.
Well-known PED expert Victor Conte, owner of SNAC System, provided ProBox TV with information to help us understand the situation and circumstances.
“Atypical findings are fairly common in drug testing and usually are not made public because they are not a ‘positive test’ result,” Conte told ProBox TV. “Some causes of brief spikes in HGH and testosterone include sprint training and heavy squats.”
Conte believes that atypical findings can happen during training camps, especially when training ramps up. Given the time frame, Beterbiev appeared to be in a window of time in which he might have started to amplify camp. Conte sees this as more of a publicity stunt than anything of substance.
“Beterbiev had negative tests on December 3rd and atypical tests on December 6th and then numerous negative tests shortly after that,” Conte added. “In my opinion, the squawking being done by Eddie Hearn seems to be more about showboating than anything else.”
