Saturday’s planned heavyweight fight in Paris between Lawrence Okolie and Tony Yoka
is officially off.Okolie returned adverse findings on a Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) drug test ahead of the bout, and Queensberry say they’ve “regrettably made the decision to cancel” the entire event, “due to circumstances outside of our control.”
This leaves Yoka (15-3, 12 KO) without a fight, which is a tough situation for the 33-year-old former Olympic gold medalist, because
a win on Saturday over Okolie (23-1, 17 KO) could have gotten him back into the heavyweight mix a little more, boxing being a “what have you done lately?” sort of sport. It was a chance for Yoka and Okolie both, and a payday, too, down the drain because of Okolie’s situation.
Okolie, 33, says the adverse findings may be a result of treatment to deal with an elbow injury. We’ll still need to hear more from VADA to have a clear idea of what went down here.
DAZN will still have live boxing on Saturday afternoon (U.S. time), as super middleweight contender Jacob Bank returns in Denmark to face Paulinus Ndjolonimu.
