Lucas Browne stripped of WBA heavyweight title, suspended

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:25 p.m. ET

foxsports

SYDNEY (AP) The World Boxing Association has stripped Australian Lucas Browne of his heavyweight title and suspended him for six months after his B sample on a doping test also returned a positive finding.

Browne became Australia's first world heavyweight champion when he stopped Ruslan Chagaev in a 10th-round technical knockout on March 5 at Grozny in Chechnya, Russia.

But the banned drug Clenbuterol was detected in Browne's A urine sample in a test by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) after the fight. The WBA said on its website Thursday that the B sample also was positive.

Browne said Friday on social media: ''I'm leaving everything to my lawyer.''

He had said a blood test he took six days before the fight was negative.