Former two-weight world champion Lawrence Okolie has returned an adverse doping test result, casting doubt over his scheduled heavyweight fight with 2016 Olympic champion Tony Yoka in Paris on Saturday, April 25.
Promoter Queensberry confirmed that the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) notified it on Monday evening that Okolie had "returned an adverse finding following an anti-doping test conducted ahead of the show in Paris this Saturday". An update on whether the fight will proceed will be issued "in due course", Queensberry said.
Okolie, 33, responded quickly on social media, attributing the result to treatment for a training-camp injury rather than performance-enhancing intent.
"Before anyone starts imagining the worst, following my bicep injury last year, I sustained an elbow injury on the same arm during this camp," Okolie said in a statement. "I had a treatment on it and now we are here. I truly hope sense prevails. I will of course be fully co-operating with all relevant authorities and I'm confident any investigation will clear my name."
The Hackney-born heavyweight is a former world champion at both cruiserweight and bridgerweight. He moved up to heavyweight in 2024 and has gone 3-0 in the division, most recently stopping Ghana's Ebenezer Tetteh last December in a routine outing designed to keep him active before a top-ten opponent.
Yoka, the Rio 2016 Olympic heavyweight gold medallist, was the marquee French name on Saturday's Paris card, and the bout had been viewed as the next step for both fighters toward a 2026 world title conversation. With heavyweight rankings in flux around Oleksandr Usyk's retirement-or-not decision and Fury-Joshua talks, a postponement or cancellation would disrupt Okolie's route back to the top of a crowded division.
The adverse finding is not yet a confirmed positive. VADA's protocol allows for the B-sample to be tested before any definitive ruling, and therapeutic-use exemptions are a common explanation when an athlete has declared an injury treatment in advance. However, with the fight four days away, it is unclear whether regulatory clearance can be secured in time even if Okolie's medical defence holds up.
Queensberry and the French Boxing Federation are expected to make a joint call on the fight's status within the next 48 hours. Okolie's previous fight - his December stoppage of Tetteh - was cleared under the same VADA programme, and the fighter's legal team has indicated it expects a similar outcome once the full chain of treatment documentation is reviewed.