Chris Algieri, who faced Amir Khan back in 2015 and Conor Benn as recently as 2021, has had his say on performance-enhancing drugs in the sport.
Both men have since tested positive in doping tests, with Benn’s results seeing his contest with Chris Eubank Jr pulled at the last minute and a resolution with the British Boxing Board of Control, six months on, still not reached.
Khan’s news broke just this month, but the test was actually before Benn’s – a post-fight urine sample after his retirement bout with Kell Brook in February 2022. He has been banned for two years.
Both men continue to protest their innocence.
Algieri told iD Boxing that there is ‘a lot of drug use in the sport’, and said that it’s only getting worse.
“I’ve said it on my podcast, Inside Boxing Live, I’ve said it on shows before. There’s a lot of drug use in this sport. PEDs.
It’s very unfortunate, myself as a clean athlete in the sport who competed at the highest levels and made it all the way there clean. My friend’s who work in sport science don’t understand how I could get as far as I did as clean as I was.”
“It’s something that will always be present in sports. Guys are always gonna look for an advantage. There’s a lot of money involved. With testing and the kind of drugs that are coming out, there’s a lot more money in making designer drugs that couldn’t be found in tests than there is to make tests that can do the job.”
It’s an unfortunate aspect of this sport, a dangerous sport and we die all the time.”
When news broke of Benn’s failed test, Algieri was quick to say that he had heard rumours about him not being a clean athlete back when they fought, but continued on to give him the ‘benefit of the doubt.’
As for Khan, the 25-4 American welterweight didn’t speculate on the failed test, rather just pointed out the ‘silly’ amount of time it took for those at the heart of it to be properly informed.
“The fact that it’s coming out now about Amir Khan – it’s been a year. He’s retired. It’s silly. I don’t know what needs to be done in order to make things right, but sweeping changes are necessary.”
Fans continue to call for more transparency and harsher penalties for those found to have banned substances in their systems.