Former world champion boxer Joseph Parker is facing a potential lengthy ban from the sport after testing positive for a cocaine metabolite on the very day he fought Fabio Wardley last month.
Adverse Finding and Potential Consequences
The Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA) collected a sample from the 33-year-old New Zealander on October 25, with the adverse finding for benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, being revealed recently.
Parker, who is currently on holiday, will have the chance to have his B-sample analysed. However, in the vast majority of cases, the B-sample returns an identical result. VADA will then submit its findings to the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoC), the sport's governing body in the UK.
The BBBoC will be tasked with deciding on any punishment. Despite cocaine being widely regarded as a recreational drug rather than a performance-enhancing one, a ban of several years is a distinct possibility.
Precedent and Past Oversight
This is not the first time a boxer has faced severe consequences for a similar offence. Back in 2018, British boxer Liam Cameron was banned for four years after testing positive for the same substance, benzoylecgonine, though he maintained his innocence.
This incident also marks another chapter in Parker's history with anti-doping procedures. Eight years ago in 2017, he missed a World Boxing Council-imposed drug test following his victory over Razvan Cojanu because he had extended a holiday.
His promoter at the time, Duco Events, called it an 'oversight', explaining that Parker had failed to update the VADA system with his changed travel plans, leaving testers unable to locate him in Las Vegas when he was actually in Samoa.
Costly Defeat and Future in Jeopardy
The positive test casts a shadow over Parker's recent in-ring activities. The father of six was accompanied by his wife and children during the fight week in London, where he lost to Fabio Wardley via an 11th-round stoppage at the O2 Arena.
In a decision that proved particularly costly, Parker had relinquished his mandatory challenger status for a shot at champion Oleksandr Usyk to take the Wardley fight, a bout he was favoured to win.
Parker, whose record now stands at 36 wins with 24 knockouts after facing elite heavyweights like Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, has yet to comment on the failed test. His current promoter, Frank Warren, has also remained silent on the matter as the boxing world awaits the next development in this unfolding story.
