Jarrell Miller has failed second drugs test after allegedly testing positive for human growth hormone ahead of his proposed fight with Anthony Joshua on June 1 in New York.
The New York State Athletic Commission had already ruled Miller out of applying for a licence, but the American has now failed another separate drugs test, according to the promoter Eddie Hearn.
Miller had initially produced an adverse result for a metabolic modulator in testing carried out on March 20 by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA).
Joshua’s camp, and most notably promoter Eddie Hearn, are eager to arrange another opponent to replace Miller on the set date in New York.
Hearn confirmed: “We have now received news from VADA that Jarrell Miller has now failed a second separate test for a further substance.
“AJ’s June 1 opponent will be announced next week – if you don’t think you can beat him clean then delete my number.”
Responding to the initial adverse finding on Tuesday, Miller had written on Instagram that he had “never knowingly taken any banned substance and when I found out the news I was totally shocked”.
“My team and I stand for integrity, decency and honesty and together we will stand to fight this with everything we have,” he said.
“This was a voluntarily test that I was very happy to do and these results came just one week after another voluntarily test that I had taken which was completely clean.”
But on Friday he struck a different tone, telling fans: “I messed up. I made a bad call. (There were) a lot of ways to handle the situation, I handled it wrongly and I’m paying a price for it.
“I messed up a big opportunity and I’m hurting on the inside. My heart is bleeding right now – I hurt my family, my friends, my team, my supporters.
“But, I’m owning up to it. I’m going to deal with it. I’m going to correct it. I’m going to come back better and I’m humbled by the experience.”