(Originally Published: October, 2019 @ Boxing.com)
This wasn’t a very good week for Surinamese-Dutch heavyweight boxer/former kickboxer and mixed-martial artist Tyrone Spong. Granted, it wasn’t quite Yusaf Mack I-was-drugged-and-forced-to-have-sex-in-gay-porn bad, but it was a pretty crappy last few days nonetheless.
On Monday, Spong lost his biggest career opportunity to date when an adverse finding on a VADA doping test cost him a shot at heavyweight-bound former unified cruiserweight champ Oleksandr Usyk.
The 34-year-old 14-0 WBC and WBO Latino Heavyweight Champ tested positive for the banned substance clomiphene, a female fertility drug used to stimulate ovulation. In men, the drug can be used to accelerate testosterone secretion and increase the sperm cell count of semen. For cheat-minded athletes, though, clomiphene boosts performance by indirectly elevating natural testosterone levels in the body. It can also be used to counter the side effects of anabolic steroid use. The UFC’s Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones have been popped for clomiphene in the past and it’s safe to assume that Spong’s use, unless he’s trying to get pregnant, falls in line with the reason Lesnar and Jones were using the drug (unless they, too, were trying to get knocked up and I’m just really, really out of the loop when it comes to the physical and mental makeup of the modern athlete).
Spong, of course, claims innocence and more than hints at a conspiracy in place to remove him from the Usyk fight.
“This is a set up,” Spong told BoxingScene.com. “I vehemently deny that I have ever taken the substance named in VADA’s report. I have asked for testing of the B sample at a laboratory of my choosing. Testing performed last week at the request of the Illinois Boxing Commission showed, what I’ve always known, that I’m a clean fighter…Any adverse finding is impossible and in my opinion a manipulative attempt to remove me from this fight.”
Regardless, Spong has been replaced by veteran journeyman Chazz Witherspoon and what could’ve been a career-altering main stage opportunity has been flushed away like eggs from ovaries in the ovulation he may or may not have been trying to stimulate inside his body.
Then, while still reeling from the lost Usyk payday/opportunity, Spong was hit with 23 criminal charges in his county of residence in suburban South Florida related to the escape of his pet cougar.
The cougar, after briefly terrorizing neighbors and hopping a few fences, was tranquilized and subsequently taken to a licensed wildlife facility. The somewhat malnourished animal has made a full recovery and, one guesses, is much happier not locked inside a dingy cage, inside a Surinamese-Dutch heavyweight boxer/former kickboxer and mixed-martial artist’s home.
According to the Sun Sentinel, the Broward State Attorney’s Office filed formal charges this week from the January incident for “allowing the cougar to escape, keeping it without a permit, keeping it in too small a cage, not providing it with shelter, and failing to provide it with toys or things to do.”
Each charge carries with it a maximum penalty of up to 60 days in jail and/or a maximum fine of $500.
When contacted for comment, the fighter issued a terse “I don’t know nothing about it” before hanging up (presumably emotional from his clomiphene-stimulated ovulation…maybe, possibly).
So, yeah, it hasn’t been a great week for Spong.
But, on the bright side, at least people actually know who he is now.
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