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Boxing promoter Frank Warren says Billy Joe Saunders plans to sue the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission over his cancelled fight with Demetrius Andrade. Saunders was denied a boxing license by the organisation on Tuesday after failing a voluntary drug test and will miss out on the chance to defend his WBO middleweight belt against Andrade in Boston on Oct. 20. It is being reported that Saunders is set to miss out on a $2.3 million payday because of the cancelled bout, and the English fighter now wants to sue the Massachusetts commission for loss of earnings. Speaking on Thursday, Saunders' promoter Warren said the commission had no grounds to deny him a license and that he plans to take the case to the Supreme Court. "Bill will appeal and the appeal will go to the Supreme Court. He will be suing them for any loss of earnings," Warren told TalkSPORT. "The tests they are referring to took place in August, but since then Bill has had subsequent tests which have all come back negative. It's ridiculous. It's stupid where we are at with this. If the fight was taking place in the UK, it wouldn't be a problem." Saunders failed a Voluntary Anti-Doping Association test for the banned substance oxilofrine after submitting a urine sample in England in late August. The test then returned positive on Sept. 28, but it wasn't until the Massachusetts commission denied Saunders' license that the fight was officially off. "The Massachusetts State Athletic Commission, whose jurisdiction the fight takes place under, at their hearing yesterday they had said they had grounds for denial of his application for a license," Warren said. "They referred to a prohibited list which is published by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and they applied that to deny him a licence. "But the test was done by VADA. The substance they found in their test is prohibited by them, but under WADA it is allowed out of competition, which is up until the day before the fight. "VADA bans everything. They are not recognised in Great Britian, they are not recognised by UK Anti-Doping and they are not recognised by the British Boxing Board of Control." Andrade is now set to face Namibian fighter Walter Kautondokwa for the WBO interim middleweight title.
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