What does Oleksandr Usyk have to do to get a heavyweight fight? Since cleaning out the cruiserweight division last November, the reigning Fighter of the Year‘s career has been on ice as he was hoping for more high-level competition at heavyweight.
After a series of boxing drama, Usyk was all set to make his heavyweight debut against Tyrone Spong this Saturday night Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
Not so fast. The (allegedly) “dirty” Spong got tossed after he failed a drug test this week. The former kickboxer tested positive for the banned substance clomiphene, a women’s fertility drug that can also be used by athletes to boost performance or mast other drugs. Both Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar have been popped for the drug.
Spong is a legendary kickboxer, who became a national hero in his native Suriname before crossing-over to MMA, and now boxing. Spong might not be fighting this weekend, but he let his hands fly over Twitter after learning of the ban:
While Spong deserves a shot to clear his name, the fight against Usyk is not going to happen. The Illinois athletic commission is refusing to license him following the positive test.
For Matchroom Boxing, finding Usyk a heavyweight opponent has been harder than picking a movie to watch on Netflix. Originally, the plan was for the Ukranian to fight Russian star Alexander Povetkin this past spring. When that fell through due to injuries and political overtones, Usyk was paired against long-time heavyweight contender Carlos Takam. That didn’t work out either. Finally, Spong vs. Usyk was announced, and we finally thought that was it. How naive.
Thankfully for Usyk, the fight will go on. Replacing Spong will be 38-year-old heavyweight Chazz Witherspoon, no relation to Reese Witherspoon, but is the cousin of former heavyweight champ (and Kelly Rowland’s beau) Tim Witherspoon.
So far, the highlight of Witherspoon’s career has been fighting on the Bernard Hopkins-Chad Dawson undercard in 2012, in a losing effort to Seth Mitchell.
If you’re still interested in watching, tune into DAZN this Saturday. Enjoy the fight!
