Russian light heavyweight boxing champion Igor Mikhalkin has been stripped of his European Boxing Union (EBU) title and banned from the sport for two years after testing positive for using the banned substance meldonium.
Mikhalkin, who fights out of Germany, won the EBU title in 2014 and has successfully defended it three times.
He tested positive for using meldonium in March during a fight in France that he won in a unanimous decision against Patrick Bois.
Since the ban on meldonium took effect at the start of 2016, there have been more than 120 positive tests around the world – including many in Russia.
Mikhalkin is the first confirmed case of meldonium use in boxing.
