Based on the following tweet, world heavyweight champion Claressa Shields has apparently been exonerated of any drug-related charges in connection with her last fight: "Hey WBO, I’m sure y’all got the news! Make that apology as loud as y’all disrespect was! I’ve been a champion for y’all organization for many years so to threaten to strip me for my title that I worked very hard for, and to not stand behind me and support me until I at least had a chance to prove my innocence... that was foul! Not how you treat a four-time undisputed who carried y’all belt with pride for all these years!"

 

Gustavo Olivieri, president of the WBO responded, "Hello, Champ. Congrats on being fully exonerated of any wrongdoing by the Michigan Commission. As you know, we always support our champions in and out of the ring. However, we have an obligation to uphold our rules with consistency and fairness, regardless of who is the champion. I’m truly pleased to see this matter resolved with no disciplinary action by the Michigan Commission. The WBO Committee is in the process of issuing [an official] ruling, which will be published in the same manner as the earlier 'show cause' notice.Wishing you continued success."

 

 

The controversy arose in February after Shields knocked Danielle Perkins down just before the final bell en route to a unanimous decision win by scores of 100-89, 97-92 and 99-90. 

 

In the following days, Shields approved a Twitter post by Victor Conte that seemed to suggest Shields had tested positive for marijuana. Conte, an expert in athlete doping issues due to his past illegal activities, currently operates Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC) and works with Shields. He tweeted as follows: "Important notice to boxing: Claressa Shields did not test positive for a PED [performance enhancing drug] after her recent fight in Michigan. Claressa had not smoked marijuana, [but] the Commision did a mouth swab test after the fight. There seems to be a number of issues that exist with the Michigan testing procedure. Urine is the normal sample [method] used to test for marijuana. Most credible anti-doping entities do not consider marijuana to be a PED. VADA found no PEDs in Claressa's blood and urine samples. The Nevada commision, the UFC and other commissions do not consider marijuana a PED. The amount found in her mouth swab was 3.4 ng/ml or parts per billion. This is an ultra-trace amount that likely would have come from second-hand smoke in the arena. There were also other irregularities that occurred in the testing procedure. The world of boxing needs to clearly understand that Claressa is a clean boxer and always has been."

In approving Conte's statement, Shields lashed out at people who were calling her a cheater: "Nice try haters. Dont't ever try and put no bullsh*t on me. Clean athletes win!" In responding to a Twitter commenter, Shields added that she had never even tried marijuana.