Ahead of his fight against Danny Garcia on Sunday, Amir Khan has declared that boxing needs to tighten up its drug testing rules.
Khan was originally supposed to face Lamont Peterson, who he lost his WBA and IBF light-welterweight titles to in December. However, Peterson tested positive for synthetic testosterone which has since called the result of that clash into doubt.
As a result of “Havoc’s” failed drug test, Khan pulled out of a rematch and Peterson was stripped of his WBA belt. Now Khan believes more measure should be brought in to prevent this happening again.
“I think there’s really nothing that should be of concern to fighters signing up to random tests,” said Khan. “You see so many fighters getting caught because there are a lot of cheats in boxing – I’d never realised there were this many.
“People used to point a finger at me. They’d say ‘Amir’s on something’ because I was boxing so well. I came on so much and I won world titles and beat bigger names and people were accusing me of being on something.”
“At least I’ve proved my point, that I’m a clean fighter, and I believe every fighter on any stage – not only on the world title stage – should be randomly tested. Why should we have to trust another fighter and not know in what is a dangerous sport.”
With Garcia stepping in to fill Peterson’s spot, Khan has managed to find a top replacement. Garcia is unbeaten, dangerous and highly rated so it is fortuitous as Khan could arrange a bout so quickly with the WBC champion.
Particularly as the Bolton-born fighter is about to start a period of fasting as Ramadan begins soon, so it was important that he get another fight under his belt, before an extended period away from the sport.
“We were really lucky and I want to thank my promoters Golden Boy for making the fight with Danny Garcia so quickly,” said Khan. “I really needed a fight before Ramadan starts [in the third week in July] otherwise it would have been over 10 months that I would have been out for – not what you want when you are a 25-year-old fighter who’s in his prime.”
*For a chance to win tickets to see Amir Khan v Danny Garcia go to http://contest.wishfree.com/amirkhan/
Gareth Williams
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