Galal Yafai eyes world title after Francisco Rodriguez drug test controversy | Boxing News

Galal Yafai will get a world title shot after it emerged his only professional conqueror Francisco Rodriguez failed a drugs test.

Yafai is now the mandatory challenger for the WBC flyweight world championship and hopes to face unified WBC and WBA titlist Ricardo Sandoval in early 2026.

“I heard it’s the first quarter of next year, it’s the next one. I just have to make sure I’m 100 percent ready. It will most likely be in America,” Yafai said. Aerial sports.

Yafai suffered a crushing 12-round defeat in his hometown of Birmingham when he fought Rodriguez in June. The Mexican injured Yafai several times and also dropped him in the last round.

The previously undefeated Yafai was the WBC interim titlist, in position to challenge for the world title. The loss to Rodriguez was a devastating setback to his career at the time.

Only later did it become known that Rodriguez had failed a drug test.

“He beat me so easily. I’ve fought all over the world, in the Olympics, I’ve been fighting as a professional for three years now. I’ve beaten good fighters,” Yafai said. “Then I’m up against Rodriguez, who’s 32, who’s probably had his best years. It hasn’t been great the last two years.

“He’s coming down in weight, he’s fighting me at my peak. I’ve got momentum. Olympic champion, luckily, so I’ve got some credentials.

“And he beat me so easily and he came to my town to do it too. I just thought something was wrong. When he was hitting me in the fight, I’ve never had that before where someone got on me that easily.”

Yafai had to ask himself questions he had never faced before.

“When it first happened, I was disappointed. Obviously we all want to win our fights. I had just beaten Sunny. [Edwards]“I was interim world champion, I was one step away from fighting for the world title, I was fighting in Birmingham, I was favorite to win,” he said.

“Yes, I’m fighting a great fighter in Rodriguez, but I felt like I had more than enough to win and that I was better. After the fight, I think I had a lot of questions: Why did this happen? How did he beat me so easily?

“It’s also the way people look at you,” he added. “People still have doubts, maybe he’s not as good.

“People can’t ignore this fight. It happened and I just have to get through it now.

“I can’t control that. I can control what I do, which is training hard and beating everyone in front of me except him.”

He believes the loss to Rodriguez on his record should be overturned and declared no contest.

“Certainly. I think it will. Due diligence needs to be done and I think UKAD and the UK board are doing what they can to resolve the issue and sort it out. I just know these things take time,” he said.

“I hope it will be as soon as possible.”

He went back to focusing on his next world championship victory. “It energizes me,” Yafai insisted. “I’m happy to move forward and fight for the world title as I will.

“At the moment I’m just looking to fight for the world title. I know Ricardo Sandoval is the champion, he has two belts. I hope I can get back to the form I had before and this is just a blip in my journey.

“It will be a great fight and I hope I can claim what I should have claimed before.”