Hmmmm. Tricky bastard. Take a cheery picked moral high ground to duck a fight. Use the general desire of most fans to have better testing in order to escape. On the surface it may appear that he's doing the same thing Floyd did with Manny but its not in the same park.

By Rick Reeno

WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (34-0, 33KOs) is still on course to defend his world title for the second time in September. More than likely his upcoming fight will be a voluntary defense.

The World Boxing Council will issue an order in October - directing Wilder's handlers to begin negotiations for a mandatory defense against Alexander Povetkin (29-1, 21KOs) of Russia.

There is a good possibility that Wilder-Povetkin will head to a purse bid. Povetkin's promoter, Andrei Ryabinsky, is one of the few people who are capable of out-bidding Wilder's powerful manager/adviser, Al Haymon.

Regardless of the setting, Wilder will demand a very strict drug testing protocol for the fight. In a recent interview, Wilder accused Povetkin of taking performance enhancing drugs .

"When you are dealing with these others countries, some drugs are legal in these other countries and sometimes they know how to take things out [of a fighter's system to pass a drug test]. The drug testing will be a very big deal for me. I'm a clean fighter. I do everything by the books. I expect my opponent to do the same. It's a shame that we still have people in the sport who try to cheat their way to the top," Wilder told BoxingScene.com.

"People can really get hurt. We are in a business where a head is not supposed to get hit in the first place, but then people enhance their bodies to go along and do more things just to get a win or get on top. How you can live with yourself knowing that you're a cheater or took a needle and shot something in your ass or took something. How can you live with yourself and say 'I am the champ' but you took something. I wouldn't live with myself if I cheated or tampered with my body."