IBF Considering Having Out-Of-Competition Drug Testing

With drug testing becoming more rampant, boxing is starting to follow suit and now another governing body could institute random drug testing.

Daryl Peoples, President of the International Boxing Federation (IBF), spoke with Nikolay Ryazantsev and said his organization could soon be following in the footsteps of other major sporting organizations, commissions and governing bodies of implementing random drug testing. Currently, the IBF only tests boxers during competition periods. 

"We are considering this issue. So far, our rules only require doping tests during fight. But I think that eventually we will move forward with taking tests during out-of-competition periods to be sure that everyone is under the same conditions. If you go into the ring with someone who has a dishonestly gained an advantage, then it can be just as dangerous for both boxers," Peoples said.

The IBF would join the WBA and WBC as major organizations that have random drug testing for its top 15 boxers. The IBF has seen its fair share of champions and top contenders fail drug tests. The most recent case of this was Kenichi Ogawa failing a drug test after he defeated Tevin Farmer to win the vacant IBF super featherweight title last year. 

Boxing's heavyweight division has also been riddled with boxers failing drug tests or violating drug policies. Some of these names include Alexander Povetkin, Tyson Fury, Luis Ortiz and Shannon Briggs.