Anthony Joshua hits back at Jarrell Miller over drug use claims

Anthony Joshua vs. Jarrell Miller

• What: WBA Super, IBF, WBO and IBO world title fight
• When: Saturday 1 June 2019
• Where: Madison Square Garden, New York, USA
• TV channel: live in the UK on Sky Sports Box Office

Jarrell Miller has once again stoked the fires ahead of the title clash against Anthony Joshua by accusing Britain’s heavyweight boxing champion of taking steroids.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday in London ahead of the 1 June bout in New York, American challenger Miller said, with no evidence, that Joshua had used performance-enhancing drugs.

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Miller was suspended from fighting sports for nine months in 2014 after testing positive for the banned substance dimethylamylamine. The 30-year-old is clean as a boxer, The Guardian reports, but he believes Joshua has not always been.

The unbeaten New Yorker said: “I study every opponent. My dad was a bodybuilder growing up; you can see it. I look at someone and I say, he’s on steroids. Anybody who comes out of the amateurs at 220lbs and then is 240lbs in a year, there’s something wrong with that picture.

“There’s no way you’re going to put on 20lbs of muscle within a year without taking some kind of supplement. It’s impossible. I know bodybuilders train all year round, non-stop, and don’t put on that amount of muscle.

“Now, if you look at his [Joshua’s] stature, while he’s staying at this higher level, his physique has kinda shrunk.

“We’ve both got contracts in place where we’re protected and the proper testing is going to be taking place, but it’s written clear as day.”

In response Joshua said: “Jarrell has been banned for drugs, so maybe that’s why he’s saying it.

“That’s a compliment because, if I was, I would not even be able to fit in this shirt. I dedicate myself to training, which you can see. I have applied myself properly and they are the results. I have been training since I was 18, so that’s 11 years.

“It’s not the first time this has happened, Wladimir Klitschko was accused of it. So, many fighters will be accused. But I get tested and, if, in the next ten years, something was to come up then it would be a genuine mistake because I do not shove needles up my arse.”