Promoter Eddie Hearn has lashed out at Jarrell Miller, suggesting the American heavyweight could be a habitual cheat with a psychological problem.
Miller was scheduled to face Hearn-promoted unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua at Madison Square Garden in New York last June before the challenger failed a drugs test for a range of banned substances, including GW1516, human growth hormone and EPO.
The undefeated 31-year-old from Brooklyn was expected to return to the ring against Jerry Forrest at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 9 – his first fight in more than 18 months – before he failed another drug test for GW1516, also known as Endurobo.
In his former career as a kickboxer, Miller served a nine-month suspension from the California State Athletic Commission after testing positive for Dimethylamylamine and was fined $2,500.
Hearn has questioned whether Miller had been cheating his whole career.
“What he never did in the Anthony Joshua situation was – he never held his hands up and said – ‘listen, I wanted to win so bad, I cheated. I made a massive mistake, I’m sorry’,” Heard told Pep Talk UK.
“And when you look back now, it’s actually worrying that he never done that.
“A lot of people have been saying for a long time that this guy’s been cheating for a long, long time – and it worries me that if he’s prepared to do what he did, after the scrutiny of the AJ situation, for a warm-up fight, then maybe he has been cheating his whole career, who knows.
“To be honest, I feel sorry for him. I think he has a psychological problem. I don’t think that he can bring himself to fight without PEDs. That is the honest situation.
“It don’t look good in this situation that the best thing about Jarrell Miller is his workrate and his ability to throw a lot of punches. Who knows what happened in the past, but what we do know is – for someone to behave like that, he ain’t right [in the head], it’s not right.
“Top Rank gave him a lifeline, they gave him a big contract when he didn’t deserve it. The Nevada Commission licenses him, when some say they should have never have licensed him, but they did.
“But he couldn’t be banned before or suspended, because he didn’t have a license when he failed with AJ. Now, the Nevada Commission will undoubtedly ban him. Other commissions, not all commissions, but most commissions will follow suit with that situation. And by the way, I think every promoter and broadcaster will too.
“I think he needs to go and have his mind right. One of the most high-profile doping events of all-time, and you somehow get a lifeline in your career and financially, and then you go and do that in a warm-up fight.
“That’s why I say that I don’t think he’s capable of fighting without it.”
