Close<\/a>Andreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and pro wrestling. In Andreas’ free time, he plays video games, obsesses over music and is a White Sox and 49ers fan. He is also a host for Sirius XM’s Fight Nation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer at DAZN and Sporting News. He started his career as a music journalist for outlets including HipHopDX, The Grammys and Jay-Z’s Life+Times. He is also an NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker as a producer for the animated short film “Bridges” in 2024.<\/p>\nWBC junior lightweight champion Subriel Matias’ second title reign might be in jeopardy without a single title defense.<\/p>\n
Matias (23-2, 22 KOs) tested positive for a banned substance in a Voluntary Anti-Doping Association test ahead of his title defense against Dalton Smith scheduled for Jan. 10 in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
Matias’ positive test was for the performance-enhancing drug ostarine, a source confirmed to ESPN. Ring Magazine first reported the substance for which Matias tested positive.<\/p>\n
“The WBC has received notification from VADA about an adverse finding from a test performed by WBC super lightweight champion Subriel Matias,” WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said in a statement to ESPN. “The WBC has begun the investigation process as per the Clean Boxing Program protocol. I have spoken to our champion Subriel and his Promoter Mr Orengo, and they have expressed their absolute availability and cooperation as the process unfolds.”<\/p>\n
Matias has until Dec. 1 to request a test of his B-sample, which his team indicated he will do, saying in a statement to ESPN that it had no comment on the matter while awaiting the results of the B-sample.<\/p>\n
Matias, 33, won the title for a second time when he defeated Alberto Puello in July.<\/p>\n
The positive test not only puts the Jan. 10 fight in jeopardy, but Matias could also be stripped of his title should his B-sample come back positive. It is rare that the B-sample isn’t consistent with the A-sample.<\/p>\n
Ostarine is the substance Ryan Garcia tested positive for following his fight with Devin Haney in 2024. Garcia’s win was overturned to a no-contest, and he was suspended for one year by the New York State Athletic Commission. The same commission is set to oversee the Matias-Smith fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andreas HaleNov 20, 2025, 08:37 PM ET CloseAndreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-296805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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