Amir Khan, UK’s ex-world champion boxer, handed two-year ban
The former light welterweight world champion achieved a positive result for the anabolic drug ostarine in February 2022.
Former world light welterweight champion Amir Khan has been banned from all sports for two years after testing positive for a banned substance.
The 36-year-old retired boxer had a positive result for the anabolic drug ostarine after his loss to Kell Brook in Manchester in February 2022, UK Anti-Doping said on Tuesday.
Ostarine is a selective androgen receptor modulator that may aid muscle growth and, according to UKAD, is designed to have similar effects to testosterone.
Khan was first notified of his own positive result in April 2022 and handed a provisional suspension, facing charges in July after announcing his retirement with a professional record of 34-6.
Following a hearing in January this year, the National Anti-Doping Panel accepted Khan’s claim that he did not use the substance intentionally, but imposed the ban on a strict accountability basis.
The suspension is deemed to have taken effect on April 6, 2022, when his provisional suspension was imposed, and will expire on April 5, 2024.
Khan responded to the announcement, telling Sky News that he “never cheated in my life”.
“You can see from my performance against Kell Brook that I lost the fight. If I went in there and knocked Kell Brook out, it’s different,” he said. “If they ban me, they ban me,” he said. “I’m retired anyway.”
Khan, one of the best British boxers of his time, retired with a record of 34-6, although the independent panel disqualified his result from the fight against Brook.
Khan started his career with a gold medal in the 2003 Junior Olympics and a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics when he was just 17 years old.
He then won the WBA light welterweight title with a win over Andreas Kotelnik in Manchester in July 2009, before unifying the WBA and IBF titles with a win over Zab Judah in 2011. He lost his next fight to Lamont Peterson, who then tested positive for synthetic testosterone.
Khan later lost world title fights to Danny Garcia, Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford again.
UKAD chief executive Jane Rumble served the case as a “reminder that UKAD will diligently pursue anti-doping rule violations to protect a clean sport”.
“Strict accountability means that athletes are ultimately responsible for what they ingest and for the presence of banned substances in a sample,” she said in a statement.
“It is important that all athletes and their support staff, regardless of the level at which they compete, take their anti-doping responsibilities seriously.”