The 37 year-old tested positive for Clenbuterol in the aftermath of his victory over Ruslan Chagaev in Grozny last month and could be stripped of the championship if the results are ratified.
‘Big Daddy’ immediately went on the media offensive as he fiercely protested his innocence and Browne now states that a pre-fight meal could be sourced to the banned substance found in his sample.
“It’s only speculation at this point. They claim the sample had only a very minute trace of Clenbuterol,” Browne told couriermail.com.au
“If I failed the test, I think it had to have been put in my system the day of the fight or the day before.
“If I’m not mistaken, we had the official weigh in for the fight on the morning the day before the fight and then a big publicity extravaganza that night. Me and another boxer, Brian Minto, from America were the only fighters given steaks. My assumption is that something was in the steak.”
Prior to the test failure, Browne has already been pulled aside by VADA (Voluntary Anit-Doping Association) officials – giving a clean sample, and says he was handled professionally by all involved with the staging of the fight.
“I have to say they still treated me very well, a five-star hotel with the whole floor to ourselves. It was a great experience but it’s been tainted by this crap. Maybe all along they were trying to lull me to sleep?” he questioned.
“(After the fight) The people from VADA tested Chagaev first and I had to wait around for two hours after the fight to do our test. The A Sample tested positive but we’re going to ask VADA to open the B sample.
“We’re under the assumption that since the A sample was tainted the B sample will be too. It’s the same urine. But you never know because (former world middleweight champ) Sam Soliman’s B sample came back negative. I’ve also sent some underarm hair follicles to give us a good reading of what’s going on and I’m going to do a polygraph (lie detector) test as I know I’m innocent,” added Browne.
