Despite his previous claims otherwise, Jake Paul and Tyron Woodley will not be undergoing drug testing for tonight’s pay-per-view main event from Cleveland.
Mike Bohn has this from the Ohio State Athletic Commission:
The Ohio State Athletic Commission head tells me Jake Paul and Tyron Woodley will NOT be subjected to fight night drug tests.
Only athletes to be tested on the card are those competing in title bouts. #PaulWoodley
— Mike Bohn (@MikeBohnMMA) August 28, 2021
This would mean that only Amanda Serrano and Yamileth Mercado are going to have to submit drug tests, as they’re the only title fight on the card, with Serrano defending her WBC and WBO featherweight belts. None of the other fights even have regional belts or anything.
So let’s be clear here: This isn’t just about Paul and Woodley, this also apparently goes for Daniel Dubois and Joe Cusumano, Tommy Fury and Anthony Taylor, Ivan Baranchyk and Montana Love, and Charles Conwell and Juan Carlos Rubio.
Paul (3-0, 3 KO) had previously stated that he and Woodley would undergo drug testing, and there’s been some theatrical arguments about Paul maybe being on PEDs, whatever, I have a hard time separating the pro wrestling from the legit when it comes to the build-up for these things.
How to Watch Paul vs Woodley
Date: Sunday, August 29 | Start Time: 8:00 pm ET
Location: Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, OH
Streaming: PPV (Click Here to Buy!) | TV: PPV
Online Coverage: BadLeftHook.com
But there’s not actually a concrete reason to suspect that Paul was lying; he really might have assumed he would be tested, because doing drug tests for fights is, y’know, pretty common with real commissions. He’s in a sanctioned, pay-per-view main event fight. Of course, it’s Ohio, which is not exactly a hotbed for big time boxing events, even with the state churning out plenty of notable fighters; this is not Nevada, California, New York, etc.
State testing is hardly state of the art in most cases, anyway — it’s not exactly VADA — but just not doing it at all is pretty tough to explain, especially if the line is drawn at whether or not there’s some trinket at stake.