On Tuesday, the UK Anti-Doping agency announced that former light-welterweight world champion Amir Khan has been banned from all sports for two years after he tested positive for the

prohibited substance ostarine following his fight against Kell Brook in February. Khan, who retired from boxing in May after his sixth-round defeat to Brook, will be unable to return to the ring until April 2024.

According to the UKAD website, ostarine is a drug designed to have similar effects to testosterone, and it is prohibited in sport at all times. Khan, who had expressed concerns over a lack of drug testing before his fight against Brook, accepted that he broke anti-doping rules but said it was not intentional.

However, an independent tribunal accepted Khan's argument and ruled out "deliberate or reckless conduct" in a written decision dated February 21, 2022, and imposed a two-year ban from all sports due to "strict liability."

UKAD chief executive Jane Rumble explained that "Strict liability means athletes are ultimately responsible for what they ingest and for the presence of any prohibited substances in a sample." Therefore, even if an athlete ingests a banned substance unintentionally, they are still responsible for the consequences.

Khan, who won the Olympic lightweight silver medal at the 2004 Athens Games when he was only 17 years old, went on to win the WBA light-welterweight belt from Ukrainian Andriy Kotelnyk in 2009 and added the IBF title in 2011 when he beat American Zab Judah. He had a professional record of 34 wins, 6 losses, and 21 knockouts.

Khan's ban began on April 6, 2022, and will expire on April 5, 2024. The boxer has not yet commented on the ruling. Photo by Shehbaz Sharif, Wikimedia commons.