Amir Khan has been banned from all sport for two years following anti-doping rule violations for the presence and use of a prohibited substance – before bizarrely claiming the positive test could have been down to “shaking people’s hands.”
A urine sample collected by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) from the 36-year-old after his fight against Kell Brook in February 2022 contained an Adverse Analytical Finding for ostarine – a banned bodybuilding drug.
UKAD notified Khan – an Olympic silver medalist and former world super-lightweight champion – of this on April 6, 2022 and issued him with a provisional suspension, meaning he has known about this for 12 months.
On July 20 2022, they then charged the boxer with two Anti-Doping Rule Violations for the presence and use of a prohibited substance.
Khan accepted the violations, but maintained his ‘ingestion of ostarine was not “intentional”’, while he also pleaded his innocence and insisted he “never had or never will cheat” after the suspension was announced on Tuesday.
His claim the ingestion of ostarine was “not intentional” meant the case was referred to the National Anti-Doping Panel and was considered by an independent tribunal which heard the case on January 24 2023.
In the written decision it came to, dated February 21, 2023, the independent panel found him to be guilty of both violations, but concluded Khan had not done so intentionally.
Speaking on Sky Sports News on Tuesday morning after he was handed a two-year ban, Khan denied any suggestions of wrongdoing on his part as he said: “I’ve just heard about it now as well so I’ve got no comment at the moment, but I’ll be in touch to give you my verdict.”— Sportsmail
