Photo courtesy of Top Rank

Sullivan Barrera has been feeling iffy about his forthcoming foe, Dmitry Bivol, counting down to their March 3 clash at the Madison Square Garden Theater in support of a Sergey Kovalev vs. Igor Mikhalkin main event on HBO.

Not iffy about the prospect of fighting Bivol; no, the Cuban has betrayed not even a hint of self doubt about battling the WBA 175 champ. But he just wants to do what he can to ensure an even playing field in NYC.

Why is Team Bivol dragging their collective feet on VADA testing, Barrera has asked aloud.

Vadim Kornilov manages Bivol. Many know him from his status in performing the same duties for Ruslan Provodnikov. He gave me an update on the testing for this light heavy defense for Bivol, who holds the WBA strap.

“No problem at all from our side! We were thinking of doing VADA testing initially, as I do with all my fighters like Ruslan, Viktor Postol, etc. Then the representatives of Barrera said that they are in the Clean Boxing Program with the WBC anyway, and they don’t want to pay anything extra for a specific VADA testing protocol. We are ready to do it and we have already sent in our VADA enrollment form for Bivol to VADA! We are actually thinking of doing year-round testing for Bivol and some of our other fighters to promote clean sport practices. I think Barrera and his team are trying to hype the fight, which is great. It will be one of the great fights in the division, one of the more meaningful fights this year!”

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