By: Sean Crose
Epitrenbolone. Drostanolone. Drostanolone Metabolite A.
Thanks to former light heavyweight titlist Jean Pascal, fight fans can now familiarize themselves from the above terms, for they are all the names of banned substances Pascal has tested positive for. Needless to say the Canadian fighter’s June 6 rematch against popular fellow vet Badou Jack is off. “My fight with @jeanpascalchamp is OFF as he tested positive for 3 different steroids,” Jack tweeted on Friday evening. “We suspected he was dirty the first time around and @Vada_testing confirmed it this time. I’m still fighting on June 6th and my team is looking for a replacement opponent. Alhamdulillah.”
Pacal and Jack battled their way through a very impressive fight in 2019. Pascal got the nod from the judges that night via split decision but it was clear that fans unhappy with Floyd Mayweather’s upcoming exhibition match against Logan Paul were happy a Pascal-Jack rematch was to appear on the undercard. Now no such fight will happen, though Jack intends to find a suitable opponent for that date. Needless to say, Pascal, who was credited for rejuvenating his career, is seeing his reputation take a serious hit as a result of the positive drug tests.
For no one expected the man to beat Marcus Browne when they met in the summer of 2019. Pascal, after all, had lost four of his previous eight fights. To make matters worse, two of those losses came at the fists of Sergey Kovalev, who had given the man a beating. Yet Pascal was able to emerge victorious against Browne, effectively putting himself back on the map with a couple of title belts. The fight with Jack came next, which only added to Pascal’s rejuvenated reputation. Virtually no one had a bad thing to say when Pacal was set up for another go round with Jack. And then, of course, came the news on Friday.
As for Jack, the 37 year old Swede can only express his disappointment at this point. “I can’t even pronounce these steroids he took: Drostanolone, Drostanolone metabolite and Epitrenbolone,” Jack tweeted on Saturday. Worth noting is the fact Pascal has been working with Memo Heredia, who has a history of working with performance enhancing drugs (though Heredia has claimed he no longer engages in the practice). “Selfish fighters who fail drug tests disrupt family incomes mess up lots of monies spent on promotion and get suspended,” tweeted PR guru Kelly Swanson, who represents Mayweather Promotions (the force behind Jack-Pascal 2). “For what? Lose before you cheat dummy.”