Largely forgotten today, but this 14-0 (13) six-foot-two Surinamese-Dutchman crossover from kickboxing and Muay Thai (a former world champ in both sports) was originally supposed to be Usyk's opponent in October of 2019, not Chazz Witherspoon. The reason for the late replacement was Spong testing positive for clomifene, a pregnancy aid that, per USADA, "in men, can alter testosterone levels by interfering with the negative feedback loop of the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis". His initial and B samples from September 22nd and 26th were both dirty, but his third VADA urine test from October 2nd was returned negative along with his testosterone coming within normal acceptable limits. Spong maintained that he was exonerated by this, and that each failure in the previous month was a false positive. He in fact went further and hinted that a conspiracy had been in place to "protect" Usyk from him. In his own words: “It’s shameful that I’ve been robbed of the opportunity to whip his ass. Usyk's team knew I was going to hurt him and needed a way out to avoid total embarrassment. I’ve been wronged and I’m pissed off. I’m willing to get on a plane, step into the ring on Saturday night and f*** him up." ...Yowza. The more cynical view of course is that by his last test all the clomifene had metabolized and left his system, although it apparently can be detectable in urine for up to 4 months. He is now sitting on 27 months of inactivity, having not fought since his second-round knockouver victory over Jeyson Minda in what had been intended as his tune-up before facing Usyk. I thought maybe in lieu of fighting to get his boxing license reinstated while serving out whatever suspension he was sentenced with, perhaps he returned to action in another sport ...but no. His last kickboxing match remains his leg injury TKO loss to Gökhan Saki at Glory 15 over 7½ years ago. His last in MMA was a year before that. Is he retired from combat sports permanently? He's only 36, so another run somewhere isn't yet inconceivable ...but, tick-tock.
For a heavyweight? Not really. And he didn't look poised to conquer the world in boxing or anything, but did show better form than some of his fellow crossovers from the K1 elite (such as Kyotaro Fujimoto, who needed two gift decisions over former light middleweight Nobuhiro Ishida, then got crushed in 2 by Dubois).
Well he did well enough at it to get himself positioned to fight Usyk at one point, so it wasn't just some idle hobby to kill time.
Will always be one of my favourite fighters. Gutted that I never got to fly out and see him fight Usyk, that was a dream of mine. He showed great promise imo in his transition to boxing, but he has a lot if mileage on him now given how young he started in the fight business. This period of inactivity might just have permanently derailed him from making any kind of a splash in boxing scene, if he had just fought Usyk and lost while still keeping a good account of himself that would have been better. Would like to see him have a few tune ups then fight someone like Rivas for a south american showdown!
