The American heavyweight has been denied his chance to compete for Anthony Joshua’s WBA, IBF and WBO belts in New York’s Madison Square Garden on June 1.
And that’s because Miller’s VADA tests picked up on adverse findings, with the Brooklyn fighter having been shown to take GW1516, HGH and EPO.
As a result, Miller was refused a boxing licence by the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC).
That has left Joshua’s promoter Hearn scrambling to find a replacement fighter to challenge the Brit in little over a month’s time and an announcement regarding the man who will replace Miller and step into the ring with Joshua is expected this weekend.
Miller, meanwhile, is set to escape sanctions for his drug usage according to Hearn because his previous licence with the NYSAC was outdated – meaning all they can do is simply deny him a new one.
Miller, 23-1-0, released a video acknowledging his wrongdoing on his official Instagram account and admitted: “I messed up. I made a bad call. I handled it wrong and I’m paying the price for it.
“I’mma own up to it, I’mma deal with it, I’mma correct it and I’mma come back better. I’m humbled by the experience to understand how to handle certain things. I’mma leave it at that.”
But Matchroom promoter Hearn wants the contender to come out and fully explain what happened – having thus far been acutely vague over the details of the substances he took.
Speaking of Joshua’s reaction, Hearn told Behind The Gloves: “He’s shocked by the extent of what happened.
“First test, okay, he actually said to me, ‘I actually feel for Miller, it’s not like he’s sticking needles in his arse.’ That’s what he actually said.
“Then two days later we found out he probably was sticking needles in his arse, the human growth hormone.
“He actually said to me this morning, ‘It would have been a war. Can you imagine?’ I said, ‘It would’ve been dangerous because you wouldn’t have stopped. He probably wouldn’t have been allowed to stop because of what was in his body.’ We don’t want that.”
Asked if Miller had apologised, Hearn continued: “No. But listen, I’m all up for forgiveness. It’s a bit like when someone commits a crime and goes to prison, at what point do you forgive them? Do you ever forgive them? Depends how bad the crime was maybe.
“I like to think that everybody deserves forgiveness. But right now, I don’t feel like that.
“Could the fight happen in the future? Never say never but right now I think he should be banned from the sport for life.
“He has to come out, in my opinion, and tell the story of what happened. He said, ‘Oh I didn’t know!’
“So what, you were just putting things in you? Injecting EPO and human growth hormones without knowing what they were?
“At least tell the story. You can’t say, ‘Ah the truth will come out.’ Well tell the truth!
“I’d respect him more if he said, ‘Yeah you know what, I thought to myself I need to win this fight and I got talked into by my training team, my conditioners, that I should be taking this stuff and I made a mistake.’
“His statement said nothing, other than he holds his hands up.”