Former WBA featherweight world champion Mauricio Lara has been given a two-year ban from boxing after failing a post-fight doping test, UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) confirmed Wednesday.
Lara (26-3-2, 19 KOs) tested positive for the banned substance Betamethasone in a sample collected just one hour after his May 27, 2023 rematch loss against Leigh Wood in Manchester, U.K.
Mexico’s Lara had won the championship three months earlier, knocking out Wood in the seventh round in Nottingham. Lara weighed in three-and-a-half pounds over the 126-pound featherweight limit for his rematch with Wood. That lack of fitness translated to the ring, with Wood easily outboxing Lara over the 12-round distance and regaining his belt.
Lara claimed the adverse finding was due to a dexamethasone injection administered on May 12 to treat a shoulder injury that Lara had sustained during sparring, but UKAD denied that the injection was a reasonable explanation for the presence of Betamethasone in his system.
UKAD said a more likely explanation for the presence of Betamethasone in Lara’s system is an 8mg injection administered on the day of his fight with Wood.
The ban has been backdated to March 7, 2024 — when Lara was provisionally suspended. The suspension from boxing and all WADA-compliant sports will end on March 6, 2026.
Bizarrely, the process took almost two years to reach a conclusion. In the interim, Lara has been allowed to fight and has done so on three separate occasions in Mexico, winning twice and also fighting to a majority draw. Despite UKAD being aware of Lara’s positive test, it did not stop him from competing.
