Disgraced heavyweight boxer Jarrell Miller has claimed his most recent failed drugs test is down to a sexual performance pill he’d been using.
The undefeated American had been given another chance after serving a six-month suspension under the WBA for failing multiple drugs tests ahead of his world title showdown with Anthony Joshua last year, only for his comeback fight against Jerry Forrest in July to be cancelled due to another positive test for a banned substance.
It was Miller’s fourth failed test in 12 months and several figureheads in boxing called for a lifetime ban to be issued after his license was temporarily suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
The substance in question was GW501516 – often used illegally to aid endurance and boost aerobic power – which Miller had also tested positive for along with EPO and Human Growth Hormone ahead of his scheduled fight with Joshua in 2019.
Sportsmail has seen documents sent to Miller and his team from the Korva Scientific lab in Los Angeles – which was signed off by one of the world’s leading anti-doping experts Paul Scott – and tests results have indicated the presence of GW501516 in the “widely available” Black Ant male sexual stimulant he claims to have taken 30 or more days before that drug test.
Miller has always maintained that he has never willingly taken any kind of performance-enhancing drugs and is confident he will be able to prove that and regain his license from the NSAC at his hearing, which as of yet has not been allocated a concrete date.
GW501516, also known as GW-501,516, GW1516, GSK-516, Cardarine, and on the black market as Endurobol, is a receptor agonist that was invented in the 1990s and entered into clinical development as a drug candidate for metabolic diseases and cardiovascular diseases, but was abandoned in 2007 because animal testing showed that the drug caused cancer to develop rapidly in several organs.
In 2007, research was published showing that high doses of GW501516 given to mice dramatically improved their physical performance; the work led to a black market for the drug candidate and to its abuse by athletes as a doping agent.
The World Anti-Doping Agency developed a test for GW501516 and other related chemicals and added them to the prohibited list in 2009.
He told Sportsmail that he has taken this Viagra-type pill on several occasions and had not made the connection the first time after testing positive for GW501516 in 2019.
And after initially failing that first test, he claims to have asked for a second and third test which then subsequently found EPO and HGH in his system, which he says he was unaware at the time that it came from a stem cell shot he had taken for an elbow injury.