Frank Warren backing Billy Joe Saunders after failed drugs test

Controversy: Billy Joe Saunders
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Will Macpherson28 September 2018

Promoter Frank Warren says Billy Joe Saunders’s world title defence will go ahead next month despite him failing a drugs test.

The WBO world middleweight champion tested positive for the stimulant oxilofrine in an out-of-competition sample taken by the US-based Voluntary Anti-Doping Association.

The unbeaten Saunders is due to defend his title against Demetrius Andrade in Boston on October 20.

A statement from Warren’s Queensberry Promotions said: “For the avoidance of doubt, the product was a common decongestant nasal spray.”

The statement added: “The British Boxing Board of Control have confirmed that Saunders is not in breach of BBB of C or UKAD [United Kingdom Anti-Doping] regulations and is therefore in good standing and is licensed to box and defend his world title on October 20.

“We can confirm that the product concerned is permitted to be used ‘out of competition’ by UKAD in line with the regulations of the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA].”

However, it is possible that the authorities in Massachusetts will take a more stringent view at their next meeting on October 8, although major boxing commissions usually follow the lead of organisations like the British Boxing Board of Control. The WBO say they will carry out their own investigation and would be expected to strip Saunders, 29, of their title if he is not granted a license to box in Massachusetts.

Saunders was fined £100,000 last Monday following his involvement in a video in which he appeared to offer money to a drug user in return for her performing a sex act. He then asked her to hit a passerby, which she does, before driving off. He subsequently apologised.

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