California State Athletic Commission Official Bill Douglas was a guest recently on the Figure Four Daily radio show that airs on The Wrestling Observer and Mr. Douglas shed a little light on the controversay surrounding the reasoning behind Aleksander Emelianenko being removed from his scheduled bout with Paul Buentello at Affliction's debut show on July 19th.
"The one thing that I can absolutely say is that he (Aleksander) was not and will not be cleared to fight in California." the official told FFD Radio "He is officially licensed denied and that will stand for all of the United States of America".
Emelianenko recently denied claims that he was Hepatitis B positive, a rumor that made it's way around the day of the weigh in's, and one that was told to MMANews.com by a fighter that wished to remain annonymous. The Russian fighter claimed that the reason he was removed was because he was late getting his medicals done.
Due to the health and privacy rules in the State of California, Douglas could not publicly state whether or not is was Hepatitis B that was the deciding factor in the issue, but obviously it is something quite bad if he will be unable to fight in the USA again.
Aleks last fought in St. Petersburg, Russia, winning that bout by TKO in the first round and previous to that fought in Calgary, AB Canada deafeating Dan Bobish in the first. I can not speak for Russian policies but being Canadian I know there is strict blood testing for every fighter before a fight. Although there is no drug testing in the country commissions will not let a fighter fight unless he is medically cleared and any diseases that could be contagious to his/her opponent.
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