(Sports news) Former light-welterweight world champion Amir Khan has been banned for two years after testing positive for a prohibited substance (ostarine) in an anti doping test after his match against Kell Brook in February. The 36 year old retired from boxing in May 2022 and accepted he broke the anti-doping rules but said it was unintentional. The argument was accepted by an independent tribunal who ruled out “deliberate or reckless conduct” by the 36-year-old. Khan said he had “no idea” how the banned substance ended up in his system.

In an interview, Amir Khan said “I’ve never cheated but I’ve got a two-year ban now, which is quite strange and funny because I’m already retired anyway. There’s no comeback planned at all. But I’ve never cheated and I never will. That’s just not something I would do. I have to take some sort of responsibility. End of the day it’s been found in my system. I can honestly say this is something I would never ever do [cheating]. It was such a tiny amount, it was no benefit at all. I should have maybe taken more precautions. I don’t want to be remembered for something like this, that’ll hurt me.”

According to the UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) website, ostarine is a drug that is designed to have similar effects to testosterone. Khan tested positive for the drug on 19 February 2022 after he lost to Kell Brook. Ukad had then informed Khan, the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) on 6 April 2022 with a possible four year ban as a consequence even though Brook and event promoters Boxxer were not told. Khan accepted two doping violations but insisted was innocent of “intentional doping” which resulted in the case being referred to the National Anti-Doping Panel.

Also read: Mandeep Jangra signed up by boxing legend Roy Jones Jr, first Indian