Australia’s first heavyweight boxing champion, Lucas Browne, says he cannot comprehend how he could have failed a drugs test after a report claimed he tested positive for clenbuterol following his victory over WBA regular champion Ruslan Chagaev in Chechnya earlier this month.
ESPN reported that Browne’s post-fight A-sample returned an “adverse” result for the metabolism booster, which appears on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list.
The urine test was carried out by the Las Vegas-based Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, with the results set out in an email from the organisation’s president, Dr Margaret Goodman, which ESPN obtained a copy of.
“This letter is to advise you that the ‘A’ sample urine specimen number 2998060 collected from Lucas Browne ... has been analyzed for anabolic agents, diuretics, beta-2 agonists and stimulants,” Goodman wrote.
“The results of the analysis are as follows: Adverse. Urine specimen contains Clenbuterol.”
The 36-year-old Sydneysider, who stands to be stripped of the title he won in Grozny, can request a B sample be analysed, but that test will have to be conducted at his own expense.
“I don’t understand today’s news, and I’m seeking legal advice,” Browne tweeted on Tuesday morning. His manager, Matt Clark, has been contacted for comment.
Browne, a former nightclub bouncer, made Australian sporting history on 5 March when he stopped Chagaev in the 10th round in Grozny to claim one of three WBA heavyweight titles.
Luis Ortiz and Tyson Fury hold the other belts in the division and Browne had already been touted to fight the latter in a big-money unification bout. “Rocky is a movie, but that was a real-life Rocky moment,” Clark said after the victory over Uzbek southpaw Chagaev.
Clenbuterol is a powerful bronchodilator that is used to treat breathing disorders such as asthma, and also a thermogenic that is effective in the fat-burning process.
The drug rose to prominence in sports world when cyclist Alberto Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour de France and Giro d’Italia titles and banned for two years after a positive test. The Spaniard maintained his innocence and blamed the result on his consumption of contaminated meat.
