Billy Joe Saunders intends to take legal action after his scheduled fight with Demetrius Andrade was cancelled.
The Massachusetts State Athletic Commission refused to give Saunders a licence to box at the TD Garden in Boston on 20 October after the WBO middleweight champion tested positive for the banned stimulant oxilofrine.
ESPN report that Saunders is set to miss out on a $2.3 million payday following the cancellation of the bout and it remains very likely that the undefeated Brit will be stripped of his title.
But Saunders’ promoter, Frank Warren, has revealed that the 29-year-old will appeal the MSAC decision and take his lawsuit to the Supreme Court.
“Bill will appeal and the appeal will go to the Supreme Court. He will be suing them for any loss of earnings,” Warren told TalkSPORT.
“The tests they are referring to took place in August, but since then Bill has had subsequent tests which have all come back negative. It’s ridiculous. It’s stupid where we are at with this. If the fight was taking place in the UK, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
With Saunders out, Andrade will now meet Walter Kautondokwa for the vacant interim title instead.
It’s been a month to forget for Saunders, who was fined £100,000 by the British Boxing Board of Control after a video emerged on social media of the 29-year-old jokingly offering a woman drugs, asking her to perform a sex act on his friend and ordering her to punch a passer-by.
But Warren, who insists that Saunders’ failed test stemmed from a “common decongestant nasal spray”, believes there is some inconsistencies when it comes to the decision to deny his fighter a licence to fight in Massachusetts.
“The Massachusetts State Athletic Commission, whose jurisdiction the fight takes place under, at their hearing yesterday they had said they had grounds for denial of his application for a license,” Warren said.
“They referred to a prohibited list which is published by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and they applied that to deny him a licence.
“But the test was done by VADA. The substance they found in their test is prohibited by them, but under WADA it is allowed out of competition, which is up until the day before the fight.
“VADA bans everything. They are not recognised in Great Britian, they are not recognised by UK Anti-Doping and they are not recognised by the British Boxing Board of Control.”
