LONDON: Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua said boxing has a doping problem and called for more random drug tests to tackle the issue, days after Dillian Whyte failed a doping test ahead of their fight.

The two British fighters had been due to meet at London’s O2 Arena in a rematch of their 2015 bout, which Joshua won, but the fight was cancelled after the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) said Whyte had returned adve­rse analytical findings in a random dope test.

Whyte, who had previously served a two-year ban from 2012 to 2014 after testing positive for a ban­n­ed stimulant, said he had not taken the reported substance.

Finn Robert Helenius stepped in at short notice to fight Joshua.

“There’s a doping problem in the sport, definitely,” Joshua told reporters ... “It happens in boxing. It’s not the first (time) and won’t be the last.”

The outcome of the Joshua v Whyte fight could have put either fighter in the frame for a clash with Deontay Wilder.

“Look where we are now. We lost the fight and nearly lost the card because of th­is,” he added.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2023