Shaun George doesn’t believe any of Jean Pascal’s claims related to why he failed tests for four performance-enhancing drugs prior to his rematch with Badou Jack almost a year ago.

George, a retired light heavyweight, is the head trainer for Meng Fanlong, Pascal’s opponent Friday night at ProBox Events Center in Plant City, Florida. Quebec’s Pascal will fight for the first time since he tested positive for four banned substances – Drostanolone, Drostanolone Metabolite, Epitrenbolone and Erythropoietin (EPO) – late last spring in tests administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association.

Pascal was removed from his WBA world light heavyweight championship rematch against Jack, which was supposed to be part of the Floyd Mayweather-Logan Paul pay-per-view undercard last June 6 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Pascal beat Jack by split decision in their thoroughly entertaining 12-round title fight in December 2019 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

Sweden’s Jack called for Pascal, who tested positive for anabolic steroids, to be banned from boxing for life following that PED ordeal.

“He’s a cheat,” George told BoxingScene.com. “He’s a straight-up cheater. No matter what they say about they don’t know what happened, it was four different substances in his system. You can’t get past that. That was cheating. There’s things that you have to inject into your system. He had to inject those things into his system, so he’s lying. He got caught and now he’s trying to save face.”

ProBox, the promoter of the Fanlong-Pascal event, provided PED testing for Pascal and Fanlong during their training camps. Multiple sources informed BoxingScene.com that the PED testing process was not managed by VADA for this fight.

The 34-year-old Fanlong is so eager to prove himself against even an ex-champion, George got the sense that the Chinese southpaw would’ve moved forward with this 12-round, 175-pound bout even if PED testing wasn’t in place.

“Fanlong wanted to fight him,” George said. “He wanted a name to prove that he’s a contender. They gave us Sergey Kovalev first [for May 14 at a catch weight of 188 pounds]. We accepted and then things didn’t work out with Triller and that situation. Then they offered us Jean Pascal and we said, ‘Yes, but what about drug testing?’

“Fanlong said he doesn’t care, that he’d beat him anyway. He wasn’t worried about the drug testing, but I am. I obviously don’t like cheating. It’s bad for the sport and this should be a clean sport. And I do believe [Pascal] is a cheater, no matter what excuse he comes up with.”

Fanlong (17-0, 10 KOs), the IBF’s number one-ranked light heavyweight contender for Artur Beterbiev’s belt, and Pascal (35-6-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC), a 39-year-old former WBC light heavyweight champion, will headline a five-fight card that’ll be streamed by www.ProBoxTV.com. Viewership of this show, which will start at 7:30 p.m. ET, requires a $1.99 subscription fee for at least one month of this boxing streaming service.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.