What Does WBC Boss Sulaiman Think About Jarrell Miller Positives and His Future?

So, the WBA was first out of the box, announcing that they’d be banning Jarrell Miller, for a period of six months, from March-September.

The Panama-based sanctioning body will bounce “Big Baby,” currently slotted No. 2, from their rankings, and consider and presumably re-instate him in the fall. Their six month ban came as a result of Big Baby’s testing positive for three different performance enhancing chemicals, as he counted down to a June 1 fight date, since pulled, against Anthony Joshua.

I messaged the WBA and have been disappointed that they have not responded to me, nor have I seen them make public any clarifying material to convey how and why they decided on that six month “punishment.”

The WBC is run by Mauricio Sulaiman, who has a good track record of being responsive to journalists and even fans, via his Twitter account. Sulaiman responded to me via email after I asked him on Tuesday about the WBA’s ruling.

Suliaman told me that he tries to stay in his own lane, and cannot pay too much heed on what another sanctioning body might choose to do. But, he conceded the level of import this case enjoys and knows that his organization will be looked to as a role model, probably, as Miller’s fate moves forward.

He also said that Miller was not in the WBC rankings because he’d not signed up for their Clean Boxing Program, the testing protocol which has fighters ranked in the WBC top 15 make themselves available for random testing.

“The WBC has a protocol which is followed on every single case,” Sulaiman continued. “This procedure must be specific according to the variables of each case. It is impossible to impose a suspension unless you go through the due process. What would be appropriate is to have some provisional or indefinite suspension and go through the process. Miller was not fighting for a WBC title, so we do not have any link to such adverse findings. Miller not being ranked in the WBC, due to not accepting to enroll in the CBP, that takes him out of any WBC activity,” the WBC boss said.