By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Wladimir Klitschko will be randomly tested by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association throughout training camp for his April 29 showdown with Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in London.

Klitschko said following a press conference Tuesday at Madison Square Garden to promote their heavyweight title fight that Las Vegas-based VADA will test him during his eight weeks of preparation in Ukraine and Austria. London’s Joshua (18-0, 18 KOs) said Tuesday that he wouldn’t fight Klitschko (64-4, 53 KOs) if both boxers weren’t subject to the most stringent testing for performance-enhancing drugs.

That was fine by Ukraine’s Klitschko, who has been criticized for not regularly participating in Olympic-style blood and urine testing for PEDs.

“I think it’s very important,” Klitschko said. “I’m very supportive of this program. If you want to have a clean sport, you have to get random testing in boxing, Olympic-style. I think it’s tremendously important because a boxing match is not a tennis match. The health of the other person is on the line, and I think doping could give you a gigantic advantage to whatever – conditioning, strength. In any sport, it doesn’t matter which sport, I’m totally against doping and I’ve always been for random testing.”

Klitschko, who’ll turn 41 before he faces Joshua, didn’t specify how many times he has undergone random blood and urine testing before fights. The former undisputed heavyweight champion only would say that his testing history dates back to when he competed for Ukraine at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

“Since I’ve been an Olympian I’ve been tested,” Klitschko said. “In the past. What is it? Twenty years now, yeah.”

Klitschko also was tested by VADA during training camp for his ill-fated rematch against England’s Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) last year.

Their second fight was postponed from July 9 to October 29, then canceled altogether because Fury failed a pre-fight test for cocaine. The embattled former champion eventually sought help to treat alcoholism, drug addiction and depression.

“I mean, if you know you’re gonna be tested randomly, and you’re sniffing cocaine, he must be dumb,” Klitschko said. “What else [could it be]? Without mentioning any names, it’s just something that obviously is missing in the mind.”

Though the 6-feet-6, 245-pound Klitschko can be tested at any time during training camp by VADA, the 6-6, 250-pound Joshua acknowledged that he would feel more comfortable if Klitschko and other fighters also were bound by the UK Anti-Doping guidelines to which he adheres or something similar. UK Anti-Doping tracks the daily whereabouts of all fighters from the United Kingdom, as well as non-UK residents scheduled to compete in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and can show up any day of the year to test those fighters.

“I’m on Whereabouts, where they know where I sleep every night and where I am every day,” said Joshua, who’ll also be tested by VADA during training camp. “I wish both of us were on it, but we have drug-testing for eight weeks [for Klitschko]. For the last year, they’ve known where I am every day. So they can randomly turn up. But not everyone’s on that system. It’s called ADAMS Whereabouts [Anti-Doping Administration & Management System]. Listen, if I beat someone that’s on dope, I’m better than I expected. If not, the drug-testers will do their job.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.