GB Boxer, Muhammad Ali, banned for two years over positive doping test
Tuesday 6 February 2018 19:23, UK
Leading British amateur boxer Muhammad Ali has been banned for two years over a failed drugs test.
The 21-year-old tested positive during a World Series of Boxing match last April in Casablanca when he was fighting for the British Lionhearts against the Morocco Atlas Lions - he had been provisionally suspended since May.
His positive test was for banned anabolic steroid Trenbolone, which is used to aid muscle growth.
Ali was a silver medallist at the 2014 World Youth Championships and 2016 European Championships, but lost in the opening round of the flyweight competition at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and will target the 2020 Games in Tokyo once his suspension is completed.
Ali told the BBC: "All they caught me with was two nanograms. I can't explain it. I was trying to make 52kg and I wouldn't want to put muscle on. I was literally trying to cut weight. It doesn't make sense.
"I didn't leave my bedroom for five months. I was so depressed, but it is what it is. I've just got to do my time and move on. I thought it would be a six-month suspension or something.
"It 100 per cent makes me more hungry - I want it more than ever now - not 1 per cent of me thought this would ever happen to me. There's going to be people saying this and that. I don't want anyone thinking I'm a bad guy."
