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Anthony Joshua has claimed doping in boxing is “rife” and says he feels sorry for up-and-coming fighters making their way in the sport.

Joshua was originally due to fight Dillian Whyte at the O2 Arena, but will now face Robert Helenius who stepped in just a week after his last fight.

Last weekend, the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association said it had informed the Association of Boxing Commissions and the British Boxing Board of Control that a “random anti-doping protocol” undertaken by Whyte had returned “adverse analytical findings”.

Whyte has denied taking the reported substance and vowed to prove that he was “completely innocent”.

Joshua, who did not suggest any wrongdoing by Whyte, told Sky Sports: “Boxing is a great sport, it changes lives, it changed my life and put me on the right trajectory.

“It helped me cut out certain habits so it is a brilliant, brilliant sport for people who want to get fit and all these types of things.

“But in terms of the sport, I feel sorry for up and coming fighters, you don’t know what is going on or what type of person you are fighting.

“It is so tough anyway then you have people who might be cutting corners, who knows.

“I understood this Anti-Doping System from the amateur system because I was exposed to it when I went to the Olympic team and represented Great Britain, that there is an organisation that stops people cheating and putting things in their system that could give them enhancements.

“So I then would now hire these people when I would fight professionally and would say look, ‘I was registered under this committee, I have been drug tested by these guys since 2011’.

“I then pay extra funds to then get my opponents drug tested to make sure no one is cheating because not just in the heavyweight division, it is rife across the whole of boxing.”

The British Boxing Board of Control declined to comment when contacted by Sky Sports News.