Alexander Povetkin and his promoter, Andrey Ryabinsky, are suing Deontay Wilder for defamation and breach of contract to the tune of 34.5 million dollars.
In January of 2016, meldonium (which is the drug that was detected in Povetkin's system at the time of testing), was placed on the banned substance list. Meldonium can take months to get out of your system. Ryabinsky and Povetkin say that statements about the fight being cancelled and meldonium use are damaging and are also defamation of character.
Andrey Ryabinsky, head of World of Boxing stated “The Wilder side has behaved in an unsporting and disrespectful way. I’m convinced they did this deliberately, because they were afraid of the fight with Povetkin. But we will not let this pass unchallenged.”
Elmira Kondratyeva, Partner at Forward Legal law firm, who is representing the interests of World of Boxing also chimed in, “We rate the chances of winning quite high, as Wilder’s statements are having an extremely negative impact on the reputation of one of the most respected boxers in the world.”
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