WBA Unveils 'Fair Boxing' - Their New VADA Drug Testing Program

By Elisinio Castillo

The World Boxing Association officially introduced its "Fair Boxing" program, which the sanctioning body designed to combat the use of banned substances in boxing. The announcement was made at a press conference earlier today in Panama City, Panama.

Fair Boxing is a program that the WBA will regulate in a partnership with the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA).

All of their world champions and boxers ranked in the top five will be required to take part in the program. The program officially kicked off this past Saturday night in Germany, during the WBA title fight between Jack Culcay and Demetrius Andrade.

WBA President Gilberto Mendoza Jr. created the program to fall in line with the WBCs Clean Boxing Program, which is very similar and also run with VADA.

"This is possible thanks to the Medical Committee of the WBA, they met in Panama to make Fair Boxing come true. This is also the result of a working meeting with colleague Mauricio Sulaimán (president of the World Boxing Council) in which we talked about pre-competition anti-doping testing and how it is much more important than testing post-combat, because there are substances that are not detected after the fight," Mendoza said.

"However, we also intend to give training value. The solution is not to sanction the athlete, but to educate him so that this does not happen. That is why we are going to implement seminars and courses so that we can offer a complete project. We will also look for our medical team to be able to give you advice as to what medicine you can take to avoid unintentional errors that could harm athletes' careers."

The creators of this project are the doctors: Larry Lovelace, Jorge Ramirez, Calvin and Shivina Inalsingh, who were supported by Dr. Margaret Goodman. They, as a whole, follow WADA's anti-doping regulations.

From now on, all world ranked boxers must register in the Fair Boxing program, especially if they want to be able to fight for world titles. Then random tests will be made to the fighters in order to have a better follow-up and ensure a fair competition.