Jose Felix Soto picks up five-year ban for positive test after Lewis Crocker fight
Aug 20, 2025 • 5:16 PM ET
Jose Felix Soto has been banned for five years having tested positive for two banned steroids for his fight with Lewis Crocker in Belfast.
They boxed in Ulster Hall on January 27, with Crocker dropping the Mexican twice and stopping him in the fifth round.
Felix caused one of the shocks of 2023 when, on May 20, he upset 16-0 Gary Cully at Dublin’s 3Arena. Previously he had lost 10-round decisions to Sandor Martin and Tyrone McKenna.
The Mexican junior welterweight has been banned from all World Anti-Doping Code-compliant sports after testing positive for metabolites of the performance enhancing steroid stanozolol and metandienone (sold under the brand name Dianabol), which are both prohibited.
The substances were found in his post-fight sample that was taken in the early hours of the 28th.
Felix was informed about the findings by UKAD (UK-anti-doping) and he claimed he had taken medicine to treat an Achilles injury and gave UKA a copy of the prescription, which listed stanozolol and Metandiestenalona, among other medications.
UKAD offered Felix the chance to apply for a therapeutic use exemption after the fact, but he did not submit the necessary documentation. UKAD charged him with Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) and insisted a five-year period of ineligibility should apply.
That two anabolic steroids were detected, read a UKAD statement, “justified an increase to the standard period of Ineligibility that would otherwise apply.”
His ban began on April 24, 2024.
The 33-year-old Felix is 41-7-1 (31 KOs) and boxed in an eight-rounder, winning a decision, against Hector Astorga Jimenez in Los Mochis, Mexico on July 25 this year.
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
