Okolie adverse test cancels Yoka fight in Paris

Queensberry Promotions pulled the plug Tuesday on a Paris card headlined by Lawrence Okolie and Tony Yoka after the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association reported an adverse finding in Okolie's performance-enhancing drug test, as The Ring first reported.

The 12-round heavyweight clash was scheduled for Saturday at a venue in the French capital. DAZN held global streaming rights to the event. A WBC welterweight/" class="internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2">super welterweight title eliminator between Bakary Samake and Ermal Hadribeaj also fell off the bill.

Okolie blames elbow injury treatment for adverse test

Okolie responded on Instagram with a photo of his left arm wrapped in kinesiology tape. "Following my bicep[s] injury last year, I sustained an elbow injury on the same arm during this camp," he wrote, per the outlet. "I had a treatment on it and now we are here. I truly hope sense prevails."

The former cruiserweight titlist added that he expects any investigation to clear him and said he would cooperate with authorities. Okolie holds the WBC's No. 1 ranking for a crack at undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk, who defends against Rico Verhoeven on May 23 outside Cairo.

Both Okolie and Yoka knocked out overmatched opponents in Nigeria on December 21 before agreeing to the Paris date. Yoka, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist from Paris, is unranked by the WBC. Samake and Hadribeaj both entered the co-feature unbeaten.

Source: ringmagazine.com