NEW YORK — Alberto Puello has been branded a cheater for nearly two years now.
By Rolando “Rolly” Romero, the opponent against whom the Dominican southpaw was supposed to make the first defense of his WBA super lightweight title in May 2023. By other boxers unconvinced by any fighter unwilling to admit guilt and embrace punishment when they test positive for a performance-enhancing drug. By unforgiving fans, especially those who troll Puello on social media.
And definitely by skeptical reporters programmed to question even whether the sky is indeed blue on the sunniest of days.
No excuses. No context. No nothing.
Fairness be damned, Alberto Puello is, some would lead you to believe, the 140-pound division’s equivalent to Jarrell Miller. Good luck trying to persuade Puello’s detractors that he is nothing like the brash heavyweight Miller — a besmirched, serial PED abuser who has been given one lucrative chance after another despite repeatedly testing positive for banned substances as both a boxer and kickboxer.
In April 2023, the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) popped Puello for clomiphene, the same notorious female fertility drug that disrupted British welterweight Conor Benn’s career the week of his heavily hyped domestic showdown with Chris Eubank Jr. in 2022. After a long, drawn-out saga, Benn’s battle with Eubank was finally rescheduled for April 26 in London, where Eubank bashed Benn with, quite naturally, an egg during a press conference Tuesday to kick off the promotion of their grudge match.
Four days after that testosterone-driven confrontation between Benn and Eubank, a lower-profile fighter who once lacked testosterone in his system will take one more shot at making his first super lightweight title defense. Puello (23-0, 10 KOs) is set to defend his WBC belt against Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KOs), the mandatory challenger for Puello’s championship, on Saturday’s pay-per-view portion of the Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach undercard at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (8 p.m. ET; $79.99).
Puello hopes a victory over Martin, who pushed WBO junior welterweight champ Teofimo Lopez to a split decision in 2022, ensures a title unification fight against the winner of another 140-pound championship clash on the Davis vs. Roach undercard: WBA champ Jose Valenzuela vs. Gary Antuanne Russell. Puello, 30, believes Valenzuela owns a belt that never should’ve been taken from him after his positive drug test.
Why? Well, therein lies a plausible PED explanation that may make even the most distrustful sort think twice about lumping Puello in with the Jarrell Millers of the boxing world.
“Me and my wife have been together for eight years,” Puello explained to Uncrowned. “We had been trying to have a kid for a while. She took a test to see if it was her [fault], and no, it wasn’t. Once I fought for the title and I won [in 2022], I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to get myself tested to see if I’m the problem.’
“I got tested and there was some kind of complication. It was me. As a result, I had to undergo a very minor surgery. I went through that surgery and what I was taking to recover from the surgery, I wasn’t aware that it was banned.”
Lizandy Martinez, Puello’s wife, gave birth to two daughters — 13-year-old Lia and 8-year-old Adele — during her previous relationship. Puello pridefully raises Lia and Adele as his own, but he and Martinez wanted a biological daughter of their own.
His surgeon prescribed clomiphene to help Puello recover from minor surgery that enabled them to conceive. Albeliz Puello was born August 1, 2023, a week after the WBA stripped her father of his first world title and removed his name from its rankings altogether.
The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) also suspended Puello for six months. The NAC and VADA did, however, accept Puello’s explanation for how clomiphene turned up in his system.
That follow-up story predictably didn’t attract nearly as much attention as when Puello’s tainted test sample became public knowledge. He was consequently removed from a scheduled Showtime fight in Las Vegas.
“On the positive side of things, I was able to have my very first biological daughter,” Puello said. “That’s a blessing I’m never going to regret. I’m never going to say I regret [having the surgery]. Do I wish that things could have been handled better? Yeah, but my daughter coming into the world, I’ll always be very happy about that.”
Puello wishes he would’ve had an opportunity to win back his title from Romero, who claimed the vacated WBA belt in 2023 by stopping Ismael Barroso in controversial fashion in the ninth round. Puello instead out-pointed Russell by split decision this past June to win the WBC interim super lightweight title on the “Tank” Davis vs. Frank Martin undercard. Puello has since been elevated as the full champion.
Bob Santos was Puello’s trainer when he won the WBA title in 2022 thanks to a split decision win over Botirzhon Akhmedov and prepared Puello for his ill-fated fight with Romero. Santos wasn’t aware a doctor prescribed Puello clomiphene until after his fighter tested positive for a banned substance VADA would’ve monitored had Puello informed the PED-testing organization of its use on his paperwork prior to the Romero match.
“It’s unfortunate,” Santos, who no longer trains Puello, told Uncrowned. “Half the people, no matter what, for the rest of his life are going to say he’s a cheat. But it’s a valuable lesson for everybody else — even if you’re doing things the right way, put things on the paperwork that they tell you to put on there. Had he just put on the paper, ‘Hey, I went to the Dominican Republic, worked with a specialist,’ he would’ve been fine. They would’ve just tested him and said, ‘OK, if your levels are within range, you fight. If your levels are too high, we’ll wait until the pregnancy and until your levels are back in range, and then you go fight.’
“It’s a lesson he learned. It was pride. You don’t want people to look at you like you’re half of a man, but ultimately look what it ended up costing him. Because even though they gave you a slap on the wrist, even though you had all of the documentation, even though you proved everything to be true, even though you ended up having the child and everything turned out to be everything that you said, it doesn’t matter now. To half the people, you’re a cheat.”
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