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- 🍵 What's (In) The Tea?
🍵 What's (In) The Tea?
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Fight With Teddy Atlas Newsletter, your one stop shop for all things combat sports related, brought to you by Teddy and The Fight team.
Every Friday, we bring you:
A combat sports news digest with all the headlines you need to know from Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts.
Highlights from the podcast and across the fight world.
Fight times and information you need to know ahead of time.
How to’s and tips for Boxing from Teddy himself.
THE FIGHT with Teddy Atlas: Oscar Valdez Failed Drug Test & WBC | Paddy "The Baddy" Pimblett | Darren Till-Derek Brunson on Apple Podcasts — podcasts.apple.com
Teddy Atlas and co-host Ken Rideout discuss Oscar Valdez's failed drug test for banned substance phentermine last month, but his WBC junior lightweight title defense against Robson Conceicao is still being allowed by the WBC. Teddy and Ken also discuss the UFC debut from Paddy "The Baddy" Pimblett a…
Fight News From Around The 🌍
Oscar Valdez Maintains His Innocence
WBC Super Featherweight champion Oscar Valdez has maintained his innocence despite testing positive for phentermine as part of the routine drug testing leading up to the fight.
"I'm not a cheater. Never have been. Never needed it. There's no easy way out for me, this is just hard work in the gym. Hours and hours of training. Lots of sacrifice. That's it."
Valdez insists that any phentermine that entered his system was accidental and potentially could have been from his increased consumption of herbal tea, which didn't help assuage the lack of confidence in his defense across the boxing world.
It has raised questions of his camp in general, who have had previous issues with banned substances, most famously with pound for pound superstar Canelo Alvarez when he tested positive for clenbuterol in 2018. He subsequently blamed it on "tainted Mexican meat".
Aside from the positive result, the WBC's response has been controversial, with them still allowing the fight to go ahead in light of the evidence against their current 130 lbs world champion.
The whole ordeal has largely overshadowed the fight itself, where an Olympic Gold Medallist squares off against a world champion who is coming off the most impressive knockout of his career thus far.
It leaves another bad taste in the mouth of boxing fans all over the world, who are growing frustrated at their cries for justice and fairness seemingly falling on deaf ears.
Legends Collide. But Should They Be Allowed To?
Whilst there is no major MMA card this weekend, a former UFC world champion is in action.
He's not in the Octagon this time, having traded it for a lucrative celebrity boxing match with former 2 weight Undisputed world champion Evander Holyfield, organised by Triller Fight Club.
Holyfield only stepped in as a last minute replacement for Oscar De La Hoya, who contracted Covid-19 last week. Holyfield has been on Triller's books for a while, and was allegedly getting close to filing for an arbitration against the company for keeping him inactive for too long.
Triller's boxing shows have definitely opened up a debate when it comes to the merits of facing off fighters that are well past their prime.
Belfort & Holyfield haven't fought competitively since 2018 and 2011 respectively, leading to anger to be directed towards the Florida State Commission for sanctioning the bout as a fully professional fight, as opposed to an exhibition bout as was expected.
The may be a new opponent in place of De La Hoya, but Teddy's thoughts won't have changed all that much 👇
Fight ⏰ for this weekend
Boxing: Valdez vs Conceicao (Friday 10th/Saturday 11th)
Boxing: Holyfield vs Belfort (Saturday 11th/Sunday 12th)
A Star Is Born At Lightweight
Teddy made his thoughts known on one of the most exciting UFC debuts in a long time, courtesy of Liverpool's own Paddy "The Baddy" Pimblett.
Do we have the next Conor McGregor on our hands here?