By Jeff Aranow: With the news of WBA heavyweight champion Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne testing positive for the banned weight-stripping drug Clenbuterol from his recent fight against Ruslan Chagaev earlier this month on March 5th, it has some boxing fans wondering whether the 36-year-old Browne was the recipient of having his food or drink spiked with the drug.
The fight took place in Grozny, Russia, the home country of Chagaev. Browne denies taking the drug Clenbuterol, and he sees it as silly the very idea that a heavyweight would use a weight – ridding drug like that when weight is the least of a heavyweight’s concern.
If Browne did have his food or drink spiked while he was in Russia, then that would be a pretty sad statement. The thing is there is no way of proving it. Browne can deny it but without the smoking gun, it’s hard to imagine what he can do.
“Prior to (Tuesday) I had not heard of the drug Clenbuterol and had no idea what it was used for,” Browne said via ESPN.com. “I am now aware that it is essentially a weight-stripping drug, and as a heavyweight boxer the idea of me using it is utterly ridiculous. I am a staunch long-time opponent of any drug use, performance-enhancing or otherwise. My team and I were well aware of the many risks involved in going to a place like Chechnya to fight a reigning champion, and believed we had taken sufficient precautions,” Browne said.
It would be great if the World Boxing Association would allow Browne a second chance. I don’t know if there’s ever been any proven cases where a fighter can say he had his food or drink spiked and he was able to get out of the situation.
“We believe Lucas Browne to be a clean athlete who arrived in Chechnya a clean athlete. We are therefore conducting our own further investigations and cannot comment further at this time,” said Hatton Promotions.
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