Kevin Iole reports that Jean Pascal is out of his scheduled June 6 rematch with Badou Jack, which was to be the key co-feature for the Floyd Mayweather-Logan Paul exhibition PPV, with Pascal failing a drug test for the steroids epitrenbolone, drostanolone, and drostanolone metabolite A.
The 38-year-old Pascal (35-6-1, 20 KO) and the 37-year-old Jack (23-3-3, 13 KO) fought in Dec. 2019 in a terrific bout, a Fight of the Year contender with a lot of big swings and drama. The rematch was a decent reason for diehard boxing fans who may not be interested in an “entertainment” main event to spend $50 and see a relevant fight, but obviously now that’s gone.
Jack says he’ll still be fighting on June 6 against a replacement opponent, but given they’ve got a week to find one, don’t expect much there:
My fight with @jeanpascalchamp is OFF as he tested positive for 3 different steroids. We suspected he was dirty the first time around and @Vada_testing confirmed it this time.
I’m still fighting on June 6th and my team is looking for a replacement opponent.
Alhamdulillah pic.twitter.com/hXIw6LOF8L— Badou Jack (@BadouJack) May 29, 2021
There will probably be an explanation from Team Pascal coming soon, as there always is — someone ate some weird food and it happened to be right around a fight, there was a tainted energy drink, etc. It’s worth noting that Pascal has in the past been a vocal proponent for strict drug testing.