American heavyweight boxer Tony Thompson has controversially claimed that doping should be allowed in sport.
The 41-year-old, who faces David Price in Liverpool on Saturday, said that it should be left up to the athletes to decide whether they want to take performance-enhancing drugs.
He said that the money used to snare cheats could be better spent elsewhere and believes that the spotlight is unfairly shone on athletes.
"I know this is going to be kind of controversial for people, I think they should just allow doping, period," Thompson told BBC Sport. "To me it's like the gun law; only the good guys are listening, so it leaves the good guys without the guns.
"Sports is what it is - it's entertainment. You go to the movies to be entertained; you watch sports and you ask to be entertained and we want our athletes to be the biggest, the baddest they can be, regardless of how level the playing field is.
"All of the money that we're using to catch cheats and supplement your body in sports should be used for other things. This is sports. This is not insider training. This is not eliminating hunger in the world. I think we put too much emphasis on what it is that athletes are doing. A lot of the time you've got to leave it up to athletes. It's a person's choice, such as abortion and other things we don't agree with."
Thompson has twice fought for a world title, losing both times to Wladimir Klitschko.
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