Amir Khan has denied cheating after being banned from sport for two years, with the Briton having tested positive for a prohibited substance following his fight with Kell Brook in 2022.
Khan lost to his long-time rival via sixth-round TKO last February, and UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has now revealed that the former world champion tested positive for ostarine after the Manchester bout. Khan, 36, announced his retirement shortly after the loss to Brook, and his ban is backdated to April 2022, meaning it will expire in April 2024.
A statement from UKAD on Tuesday (4 April) read: “Ostarine is a selective androgen receptor modulator. The substance is listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s 2022 Prohibited List as an anabolic agent and is prohibited in sport at all times.” UKAD added that it had informed Khan, an Olympic silver medalist and former world super-lightweight champion, of the adverse finding on 6 April 2022. He received a provisional suspension from all sport on the same day.
UKAD’s statement continued: “Mr Khan accepted the violations charged but maintained that his ingestion of ostarine was not ‘intentional’.” An independent tribunal then heard Khan’s case this January, and in February its verdict was that Khan had committed a violation but that he had not done so intentionally. “The panel also disqualified Mr Khan’s result from the bout against Mr Brook,” UKAD said.
Speaking to Sky Sports on Tuesday, Khan said: “I’ve never cheated. I’m a retired fighter, and at the same time, you can see by my performance; my performance against Kell Brook wasn’t the best performance that I had. I lost the fight; if I went in there and knocked Kell Brook out, it’d be different.
“I’ve never cheated in my life, I’m the one who wanted the testing in the fight. Also, the amount that was in my system could’ve been [from] shaking people’s hands. I don’t know what drug was in my system. I’ve never cheated in my life, I would never cheat. I never will.
“Obviously I have a big team around me to make sure that I’m taking the right supplements and the right things, so when it first came [out] that I was positive, it was more of a shock to me and the team and everybody. I was tested throughout the whole training camp.
“This result of me being positive came out literally weeks after the fight, which normally... you’d think it’d be only a week. Because it was weeks after the fight, it was hard for me to then think: ‘What did I do wrong? Was there something I took? Any other vitamins, so I can then pick up on what I’ve been taking and work out how that substance is in my body?’
“It was a big shock to me, and that’s why I wanted to come out as soon as it was announced in the newspapers. I want to come out and give my [side]; I don’t want to hide away.
“It’s such a tiny amount – smaller than a grain of salt in an Olympic-sized swimming pool – which was not [of] any benefit at all. I don’t know how it got in there, but I should maybe have taken a little bit more precaution...
“I just don’t know how it got in there, and I am very sorry about it. If people remember me for just this incident that happened, I think it’ll always upset me, because I know it was never done by purpose. Hopefully people believe me.”
Meanwhile, Boxxer chief Ben Shalom, who promoted Khan vs Brook, told Talksport that he only learned of the failed drug test on Tuesday.
Brook, 36, also retired after his win against Khan, though he has since been linked with a return to the ring.
This February, Brook admitted to struggling with his mental health during his retirement from boxing, while apologising to ‘family, friends and fans’ after a video emerged of the Briton appearing to snort white powder.
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