Lebedev suffered an horrific eye injury in losing his WBA status against the Panamanian in May, although Jones was sanctioned for a banned substance appearing in his A sample in the aftermath and has been handed a suspension.
Upon his return, Jones has been granted the chance to fight to reclaim his old crown, which is now back in the hands of Lebedev, who lost it in his second defence.
“First of all Jones representatives never used the right to test the B sample,” Mendoza told World Boxing News.
“Don King Productions alleged it was tainted. He presented a independent sample sent to a lab in Lenexa, Kansas. However, WBA rules directed the parties to the local commission drug testing facilitates and procedures.
“The decision based on WBA rules is to reinstate Dennis Lebedev as the regular champion and Guillermo Jones is suspended retroactively for 6 months.
“Jones withdrawal is based on the WBA medical and safety guidelines as in article 13: “…The sanctions due to positive results of drug control tests shall be as follows:..” sections applied says: “3) If the challenger wins the world championship bout and his anti-drug test is positive and the losing champions has a negative result, then, the champion shall retain his title no matter losing it, and the challenger shall be disqualified ..”. The sanction period time is base on rule C 45.
“Furthermore, because all the controversy involved and the fact it was a closed fight, a direct rematch was ordered. In this case a purse bid must be called, with the split being 55% Lebedev and 45% for Jones,” he added.
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