The retired former unified junior welterweight champion from Bolton, England, Amir Khan fears that his legacy might be irreparably damaged following the announcement on Tuesday that the United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) imposed a retroactive two-year ban on him due to a positive drug test conducted shortly after his defeat to Kell Brook on February 19 of 2022. The test detected the presence of ostarine, an anabolic agent.
As an Olympic silver medalist, Khan was among the most prominent figures in British boxing over the past fifteen years. Although he did not contest the UKAD findings, he insisted that he did not knowingly consume the substance in question.
The UKAD investigation dismissed the likelihood that Khan deliberately ingested the substance, determining that the amount present in his system was too insignificant to provide any noticeable advantage.
“I have no idea [how the substance entered my body],” Khan said. “It could be meeting people, shaking people’s hands. The amount of ostarine in my blood was 0.5, which is say [in] an Olympic size swimming pool, it's smaller than a grain of salt.”
“The results say it could not have changed my performance and with the amount that was in my blood it could not have made me any stronger or better. It was such a tiny amount which somehow got into the system.”
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