Â鶹´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Retired boxer Amir Khan gets 2-year ban for doping

Terence Crawford, right, punches Amir Khan during the fifth round of a WBO world welterweight championship boxing match in New York, on April 21, 2019. (Frank Franklin II / AP) Terence Crawford, right, punches Amir Khan during the fifth round of a WBO world welterweight championship boxing match in New York, on April 21, 2019. (Frank Franklin II / AP)
Share
LONDON -

Retired British boxer after testing positive for a prohibited substance following what proved to be the last fight of his career.

Khan, a former light-welterweight world champion and Olympic silver-medallist, returned a positive result for anabolic agent ostarine after his loss to Kell Brook in Manchester in February 2022, UK Anti-Doping said Tuesday.

Ostarine is a selective androgen receptor modulator that can help muscle growth and, according to UKAD, is designed to have similar effects to testosterone.

Khan, who announced his retirement three months after the fight, accepted a violation of anti-doping rules but said he had not intentionally ingested the substance. That was accepted by an independent panel following a hearing in January.

His ban will expire on April 5, 2024.

Reacting to the announcement, Khan -- speaking in London -- told Sky News he has "never cheated in my life."

"You can see by my performance against Kell Brook -- I lost the fight. If I went in there and knocked Kell Brook out it's different," he said.

The 36-year-old Khan said he found it strange he has been banned now that he is retired from boxing.

"If they ban me, they ban me," he said. "I am retired anyway."

One of the best British boxers of his era, Khan retired with a record of 34-6, though the independent panel has disqualified his result from the fight against Brook.

It's a sad final entry to a career that started with a gold medal at the 2003 Junior Olympics and a silver at the Athens Olympics in 2004, aged just 17.

Khan won the WBA light-welterweight title with victory 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 subsequently tested positive for synthetic testosterone.

Khan later lost world title fights again Danny Garcia, Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.

In recent years, Khan has appeared on reality TV shows and is scheduled to be a participant on "I'm A Celebrity... South Africa" this month.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

WATCH LIVE

WATCH LIVE National ceremony in Ottawa will mark Truth and Reconciliation Day

The streets of downtown Ottawa are turning into a sea of orange with hundreds of people already in place on Parliament Hill ahead of a ceremony to honour the survivors of Canada's residential school system and the children who never made it home.

Local Spotlight

On Saturday night at her parents’ home in Delaware, Ont. the Olympic bronze medallist in pole vault welcomed everyone who played a role in getting her to the podium in Paris.

A tale about a taxicab hauling gold and sinking through the ice on Larder Lake, Ont., in December 1937 has captivated a man from that town for decades.

When a group of B.C. filmmakers set out on a small fishing boat near Powell River last week, they hoped to capture some video for a documentary on humpback whales. What happened next blew their minds.

A pizza chain in Edmonton claims to have the world's largest deliverable pizza.

Sarah McLachlan is returning to her hometown of Halifax in November.

Wayne MacKay is still playing basketball twice at Mount Allison University at 87 years old.

A man from a small rural Alberta town is making music that makes people laugh.

An Indigenous artist has a buyer-beware warning ahead of Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Police are looking to the public for help after thieves broke into a Lethbridge ice creamery, stealing from the store.

Stay Connected