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Australia's new heavyweight boxing champion vows to fight positive drug test

Xinhua, March 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australia's new heavyweight boxing champion, Lucas "Big Daddy" Browne, said he doesn't "understand" how he returned a positive drug test and has vowed to seek legal advice to help fight the charge.

Reports surfaced on Tuesday morning suggesting Browne had tested positive for banned performance enhancing drug (PED), clenbuterol, before his World Boxing Association (WBA) title-fight win over Russian Ruslan Chagaev in Chechnya a fortnight ago.

Browne, who has won all 24 of his career bouts to date, released a very short statement in response to the allegation, which could lead to him being stripped of his heavyweight title and banned from the sport.

"I don't understand today's news, and I'm seeking legal advice," Browne told his fans over social media on Tuesday.

U.S. media company, Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN), obtained a letter on Monday from the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) informing the organizers of the Browne-Chagaev fight of the Australian's suspect test results.

"This letter is to advise you that the 'A sample' urine specimen number 2998060 collected from Lucas Browne ... has been analysed for anabolic agents, diuretics, beta-2 agonists and stimulants," the statement read.

"The results of the analysis are as follows: Adverse. Urine specimen contains Clenbuterol."

VADA has requested the 36-year-old pay for a follow-up test of his second urine sample, known as the 'B sample', in order to confirm or clear the first reading or 'A sample'.

"Browne has the right to promptly request analysis of the 'B sample' at his expense," it said.

The Sydney-based boxer was in line to fight a number of fellow top-billing boxers -- among them unified heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, and interim belt holder Luis Ortiz -- but now the future of those lucrative matchups have been left in doubt.

However, the second test result isn't Browne's only hope of shaking the charge. In 2013, another Australian athlete, professional cyclist Michael Rogers, dodged suspension by claiming clenbuterol had entered his system via contaminated meat.

Some international farmers administer the drug to their cattle to produce leaner meat, a fact acknowledged by the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA).

However, drug cheats have in the past used clenbuterol to boost metabolism as it increases the human body's average core temperature and subsequently burn excess fat.

Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador had his 2010 Tour de France win wiped from the record books and was banned for two years, after returning a positive sample containing Clenbuterol that same year. His defence, based on the same premise of contaminated food, was not accepted by WADA. Enditem