Parker’s positive cocaine test caused by nutritionist, doping body says

The 34-year-old boxer tested positive for cocaine on day of shock loss to Fabio Wardley in London in October.Former world heavyweight boxing champion Joseph Parker has been cleared to return to the ring after serving a three-month drugs ban that authorities said was due to his nutritionist.The 34-year-old New Zealander tested positive for cocaine on the day of his shock loss to Fabio Wardley in London in October.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Boxer Chapman recovering after emergency surgery for brain bleedlist 2 of 4Joshua comes back twice to knock out Prenga and set up Fury showdownlist 3 of 4Fury dominates Wach in Thailand boxing bout ahead of Joshua showdownlist 4 of 4Heavyweight champion Usyk says vacating heavyweight world title beltsend of listParker has always denied knowingly taking any banned substances and United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) said the nutritionist he employed ahead of his fight with Wardley was a “regular user of cocaine”.“New Zealand professional boxer Joseph Parker has served a three-month ban from all World Anti-Doping Code-compliant sport following an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) for the presence of a prohibited substance,” a UKAD statement said on Thursday.“At the time of this announcement, Mr Parker is free to participate in sport.”“On 6 March 2026, Mr Parker provided UKAD with evidence claiming that the adverse analytical finding was the result of his exposure to cocaine used by the nutritionist he had employed in preparation for the bout on 25 October 2025.“The nutritionist stated that he was a regular user of cocaine and had used cocaine daily in the week leading up to the bout,” the statement added.Parker was tested by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) on October 25.On the same day, he was beaten by Briton Wardley at London’s O2 Arena.Parker failed a UKAD test in the early hours of October 26 .UKAD added it had found in June that Parker’s cocaine ingestion had occurred out of competition and therefore was “in a context unrelated to sport performance”, thereby lifting his previous suspension.