Quebec boxer Lucian Bute says he can’t explain failed doping test

Montreal boxer Lucian Bute reiterated on Friday he never took an illegal substance despite failing a doping test after his super middleweight title bout against Badou Jack.

“Never, never, never did I take anything, an illegal substance,” he told a news conference in Montreal.

The 36-year-old Quebec boxer added that all he consumed were “supplements for recuperation” given to him by his training team.

The World Boxing Council said Thursday the D.C. Boxing and Wrestling commission revealed it had found the banned substance Ostarine.

Bute said he was “surprised and disappointed” to hear the news.

He said he has never failed a drug test in a 20-year career that includes 300 amateur bouts and 13 years of boxing in Quebec.

“Why take something now, at 36 years old? All my career I haven’t taken anything,” he said, adding he has often been among those calling for more drug testing of athletes.

Bute said part of his regimen included taking supplements and shakes provided to him by a trainer.

He switched to a new training team almost a year ago but said he had been assured that everything he took respected the “same protocols” as in the past.

“I’m not blaming anyone, I’m not accusing anyone — not the athletic commission in Washington, or my physical trainer, or my team,” he said.

“But somewhere, something isn’t right if that product is in my body involuntarily. I never took it. I don’t even know what it is.”

Bute said he would travel to Washington to hear the test results for the second part of the sample, which he hopes come back negative.

“(I hope) to prove, to fight to the end to prove that I’m not a guy who took something,” he said. “I’m clean, I respect sport and boxing especially, and I’m in favour of (testing),” he said.

Bute and Jack fought to a majority draw in the April 30 bout in Washington.

The Romanian-born Bute (32-3-1) is a former 168-pound champion.