You've probably heard the name. It may have been a while, however - anywhere between four and fifteen months, depending on how firmly pressed you have your thumb on the sport's pulse. Last year he won Olympic gold in Paris, defeating Loren Berto Alfonso Domínguez (a Cuban, but representing Azerbaijan) in the 92kg finals. The world should have been his oyster in 2025 - and indeed things started well in the first half. A stoppage in January was his first pro match since 2023, having taken off all the previous year to focus on amateur tourneys and Olympic qualifiers. Then he joined the Riyadh Season WBC Boxing Grand Prix and was far viewed as the overwhelming favorite to clear the field at heavyweight. He stopped Marvin Anthony Mendoza Delgado in the Round of 32 and then whooped Youness Baalla of Morocco to breeze to a UD6 in the Round of 16. Before he could meet American hopeful Dante Darnell Stone in the quarterfinals, however, Mullojonov failed a drug test. It wasn't a borderline case where "oh, he smoked a little weed" or "he took a prescription that is sometimes used as masking agent", either. He was proven definitively guilty of having taken methasterone - a banned anabolic-androgenic steroid with zero acceptable medical use. Which...is just epically shitty behavior. If you're an Olympic gold medalist, endowed with natural athletic ability and the full coaching and resources of the Uzbek national amateur program, you are already advantaged to an absurd degree over the green prospects that populate the Grand Prix bracket. You're virtually playing in God Mode to begin with, so to put your thumb on the scale by cheating is just abhorrent. Mullojonov had to withdraw from the Grand Prix and rightfully, the International Testing Agency has served him a three year doping ban. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to matter to Lift Promotions or the UFL (the sanctioning body in Uzbekistan), as he fought just hours ago in Taskhent on a card that also featured Radzhab Yusupovich "The Python" Butaev and Bakhodir Isomiddin Ugli "The Big Uzbek / Brave Boy" Jalolov with Shaxram Giyasov in the main event. Mullojonov fought Monyasahu Isola Muritador and forced the Nigerian to quit early to claim the RTD3 victory and the WBC CISBB super heavyweight title. What is the point of consequences if they are circumventable? I don't agree with Teddy Atlas on much, but he was right about the sport needing a corruption-proof, transparently run commission with global jurisdiction. Jalolov and Mullojonov are the #1 and #2 professional Uzbek heavyweights and honestly? They can both screw right off, albeit for different reasons (one's lazy, the other's a cheater). I'd just as soon neither of them get any more paydays or regional baubles. Just go away. Or stay in the amateurs.
Goddammit! I was planning to do a thread on him! I still will, even though I don't like the doping, I think he's a very solid talent and I believe in his skillset.
