By Keith Idec

Denotay Wilder’s managers, promoter Lou DiBella and adviser Al Haymon will spend Friday solidifying a plan B for the WBC heavyweight champion now that Luis Ortiz has failed a performance-enhancing drug test.

An official announcement hasn’t been made, but Wilder (38-0, 37 KOs) isn’t expected to move forward with his title defense against Ortiz (27-0, 23 KOs, 2 NC) because the Cuban southpaw has tested positive for banned diuretics that can be used as masking agents for PEDs. The Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency, which performs testing for the WBC’s “Clean Boxing Program,” informed all parties Thursday that Ortiz tested positive for hlorothiazide and hydrochlorothiazide in a urine test taken September 22.

Mauricio Sulaiman, the WBC’s president, revealed that Ortiz failed a test through Twitter early Friday morning (//krikya360.com/luis-ortiz-fails-drug-test-deontay-wilder-fight-doubt--120926).

Wilder, who expressed concern at a press conference last week about Ortiz possibly testing positive, could decide to make a mandatory defense of his title against former champion Bermane Stiverne on November 4.

The 31-year-old Wilder went out of his way to push back that bout because he wanted a more challenging, meaningful fight and because television executives expressed little interest in televising a Wilder-Stiverne rematch. Wilder won their first fight convincingly to take the WBC belt from Stiverne in January 2015 in Las Vegas.

Showtime televised the Wilder-Stiverne fight and was set to broadcast Wilder-Ortiz.

The 38-year-old Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs) has fought just once since Wilder defeated him. Derric Rossy dropped Stiverne in the first round of that November 2015 bout and Stiverne struggled on his way to winning a 10-round unanimous decision in Las Vegas.

The WBC still elevated him into its No. 1 spot and made him its mandatory challenger for Wilder, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Stiverne is training, though, because he is scheduled to face Dominic Breazeale (18-1, 16 KOs) on Wilder’s undercard November 4. The Haitian-born, Las Vegas-based contender was paid a six-figure fee to step aside and allow the Wilder-Ortiz fight to take place.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.