Jarrell Miller: Fraud or Fighter?
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By Loan Cat
When heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, decided to take on the challenge for the title from Jarrell Miller, he never saw this hook coming. At first glance, Miller’s record seems impressive at 23-0-1 with 20 knockouts. But after he tested positive for the third time, his record now comes into question in everyone’s mind.
Miller was set to fight Joshua (22-0 with 21 knockouts) on June 1 at Madison Square Garden for the title of heavyweight champion when he tested positive for PEDs. At the time, Miller didn’t have a boxing license from the New York State Athletic Commission. In order to fight in the bout, Miller needed to apply for a license, which also came with a urine drug test. The first test yielded a positive for GW1516, at which point the commission tested Miller for a second time. The second test came back with a positive for HGH. The commission then opted to test Miller for a third and last time, which revealed EPO. (This doesn’t include the time he tested positive in 2014 in Los Angeles.)
Here’s where the conundrum comes in. Because Miller didn’t have an active license in New York, the commission cannot suspend or fine him. The most it can do is deny his application for a license. Jarrell can, however, attempt to apply for a license in another state because there is no formal regulatory commission that oversees all the individual commissions’ drug testing.
Miller’s “special circumstance” will most definitely garner attention from the American Boxing Commission (ABC), which will probably make it one of the topics of discussion during its annual meeting in Arizona in July.
Promoter Hearn was so angered by this that he took to the media. Hearn accuses Miller of deliberately trying to hurt or maim Joshua by knowingly taking these performance enhancers. With the media attention and pressure, Miller took to Instagram to apologize for his actions.
The bad news is that Miller’s reputation is stained. The good news is that Miller is only 30 years old, which is young for a heavyweight. Only time will tell how the future will unfold.
*Images courtesy of Instagram
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