\u201cHe wanted to do everything that he could to make it right,\u201d Parker said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI forgive him. Listen, everyone makes mistakes. It was a big mistake, and it cost me a lot, and it cost me time out of the ring, opportunity, looking after my family, but it also gave me time to spend more time here at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he was resentful in any way, Parker said it was part of the journey. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe journey continues. The journey goes like this, up and down, up and down, up and down.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a statement released on Friday morning, UKAD confirmed Parker was free to get back to work in the ring. <\/p>\n
\u201cNew 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,\u201d a UKAD statement said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time of this announcement, Mr Parker is free to participate in sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement added: \u201cOn 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nutritionist stated that he was a regular user of cocaine and had used cocaine daily in the week leading up to the bout.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker was tested by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (Vada) on October 25.<\/p>\n
On the same day, he was also beaten by Briton Wardley at London\u2019s O2 Arena.<\/p>\n
Parker also failed a UKAD test in the early hours of October 26.<\/p>\n
UKAD added it had found in June that Parker\u2019s cocaine ingestion had occurred out of competition and therefore was \u201cin a context unrelated to sport performance\u201d, therefore lifting his previous suspension.<\/p>\n
Parker\u2019s professional record stands at 36 wins and four defeats.<\/p>\n
He was WBO heavyweight champion from 2016 to 2018 before losing the title to Britain\u2019s Anthony Joshua in Cardiff.<\/p>\n
UKAD\u2019s statement came a day after Parker himself announced his ban had been lifted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pleased to confirm my provisional suspension is lifted and I\u2019ll be back in the ring soon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Parker suffered an 11th-round stoppage defeat by Wardley and lost his status as WBO mandatory challenger to then-undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.<\/p>\n
– with NZ Herald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe wanted to do everything that he could to make it right,\u201d Parker said. \u201cI forgive him. Listen,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,101572,682,7800,2023,3595,8604,25598,20926,276099,3401,12513,175540,42,53733,28825,43,5973,17472,73988,2989,15388,1527,312,765,40,38,41,39,9938],"class_list":["post-561149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-antidoping","tag-being","tag-body","tag-boxing","tag-by","tag-caused","tag-cleared","tag-cocaine","tag-doping","tag-drug","tag-failed","tag-forgives","tag-headlines","tag-joseph","tag-kingdom","tag-news","tag-nutritionist","tag-parker","tag-parkers","tag-positive","tag-responsible","tag-return","tag-says","tag-test","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}