Amir Khan reveals huge financial cost after failed drugs test

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Why would I have risked blemishing my legacy?’: Shell-shocked Amir Khan reveals he spent £100,000 to find out how he tested positive for a banned bodybuilding drug and says he would ‘hate to remembered for this’

• Amir Khan tested positive for a banned substance after his defeat by Kell Brook
• He has revealed he spent £100,000 to find out how it got into his system
• The two-time world champion hopes his legacy in the sport will not be tarnished 

Amir Khan stood blinking in the pale sunlight of a cold London morning, bracing himself against the furore following the announcement of his two-year ban for failing a drugs test.

He looked shell-shocked as he described a year of turbulent emotions which began with ‘disbelief’ when first informed he had tested positive and has ended in ‘heart-break’ that the suspension might tarnish his legacy in the eyes of many.

Factor into the ‘deep personal upset’ his ‘mortification’ that this should happen at a time when his beloved sport of boxing is mired in multiple doping scandals and allegations.

The one consolation in the judgement handed down by an Independent Tribunal is the finding that he did not ingest the prohibited substance ostarine deliberately.

‘If it can be a consolation,’ he says, somewhat disconsolately. Then adds: ‘I have never cheated in my 27 years in the ring as boy, amateur and professional. I have always been strongly anti-doping. ‘

Amir Khan tested positive for the banned substance ostarine, resulting in a two-year ban

The failed drugs test came after his devastating defeat to domestic rival Kell Brook

One huge irony is that he finds himself suspended now having already quit the ring following his sixth round KO defeat by Kell Brook 14 months ago. At the conclusion of which he gave the fateful urine sample.

The former two-time world light-welterweight champion says: ‘That was always going to be my last fight. I had no plan or intention of coming back. I have moved on with my life in business, my family and the charities I support. It’s weird to find myself banned from something I no longer do. But it still hurts. A lot.’

Khan then reveals that he invested heavily in medical and legal opinions when first notified of the test result, although not to contest the finding. He says: ‘I spent over £100,000 on that advice just to try to find out how this could have got into my system. Among the possibilities they came up with was via a handshake. There was a whole crowd of people in my dressing room after the fight and I’m a friendly guy who always shakes hands.’

He knows that explanation might be derided as humorously as the reaction to claims that Conor Benn’s failure of two drugs tests was caused by eating too many eggs. But there is one significant difference between them.

‘At no point have I questioned the validity of my test,’ says Khan. ‘It is what it is. I take responsibility because perhaps I should have taken even more precautions. The substance was there. No denying that. Even though it was just a speck, described by one expert to me as equivalent to a single grain of salt in a swimming pool. I’ve taken hundreds and hundreds of test down the years without a flicker of anything.

‘I know people will be questioning me but I hope they will ask themselves why on earth I would have done this at the very end of my career. Why I would have risked blemishing my legacy in my last fight.

‘I ask everyone to take another look at that fight with Kell. It was the worst performance of my career. I was in the worst condition of my life as it came two-and-a-half years after my previous fight. Did it look remotely like I was on drugs?’

Khan raises an even more significant irony – and with it an alarm about the glacial pace and apparent chaos of drugs testing in British sport by UKAD – when he says: ‘It was me who insisted on drugs testing for this fight. As I always did for every fight. I have to say I also did so for this one because I wanted to make sure Kell was tested. 

Khan has not questioned the validity of the test but spent £100,000 trying to figure out how the prohibited substance got into his system

‘I became concerned when no inspector turned up throughout almost all my training camp. I wondered if the same was going on with Kell. I asked my team to get onto UKAD about it but still they don’t turn up until the last minute.’

There was a hint of exasperation there, as with his recollection of the only previous time drugs were a factor in one of his fights.

‘I was the victim then,’ says Khan of the October 2011 night in Washington DC when he was robbed of his world title by Lamont Peterson. The home-town refereeing and judging caused massive controversy but what followed was even more alarming. Peterson was found to have tested positive for a significant amount of a performance enhancing testosterone and admitted the offence.

The WBA reinstated Khan as champion and he says: ‘We’d watched a lot of tapes of Peterson but as soon as the fight started I knew I was in against a very different boxer from the one he had been before. He was bigger, stronger and hitting harder than he ever had.

‘I still should have got the decision but I also became even more aware of the menace of drugs in our sport. If anything even more against ever using them myself.’

This teenage hero of the 2004 Athens Olympics – winning silver as the only boxing member of Team UK – is distraught at the potential career-end damage to his reputation and to the worthy causes he champions. He says: ‘After everything I’ve achieved I would hate to remembered for this.’

He had just flown back into London from a second home in Dubai when the bombshell broke upon this Tuesday morning. His wife, parents, siblings and entire family had been steeling themselves for this but he says: ‘They are all terribly upset but very, very supportive. I’m thankful for that. 

‘Of course I’m aware this comes at a difficult time for boxing but I have to hope that the public will read the judgement and fully understand when it says that this was neither intentional or deliberate.’

Khan says he became even more anti-doping after Lamont Peterson tested positive for a banned substance following their fight in 2011

Khan, a powerful spokesman for improved Anglo-Pakistan relation, will go ahead with speaking at three charity dinners this week, in Birmingham and London. He awaits the audience reaction with keen interest. 

He is also continuing his campaign for intensified awareness of public safety on the streets following his gun-point mugging in East London when his expensive watch was wrenched from his wrist.

‘We all have to be more wary and attentive now,’ he says, seeing another irony there for himself at this painful moment. He will continue promoting the future of boxing in Pakistan, especially among youngsters in his parents’ homeland, saying: ‘My message to them about drugs and to youngsters everywhere coming into boxing will remain the same. Don’t take them. Never. whatever the temptation or the pressure. Not only can you harm opponents but you can damage yourself.’

Finally, with a poignant smile, one of the greatest British boxers of his generation says: ‘And take care. Great care. With everything.’

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