Billy Joe Saunders has been denied a license by the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission and will likely be stripped of the WBO middleweight championship after failing a voluntary drug test prior to his forthcoming title defence against Demetrius Andrade.

Saunders, who failed a screening for the banned performance-enhancing stimulant oxilofrine conducted by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (Vada), had been scheduled to face Andrade, a two-time junior middleweight belt-holder and the WBO’s mandatory challenger, in the main event of a Matchroom Boxing card on 20 October at Boston’s TD Garden.

Instead, the 29-year-old former Olympian will lose out on a seven-figure payday and the show will proceed as Andrade will face Walter Kautondokwa for the organisation’s vacant interim title at 160lbs.

Saunders (26-0, 12 KOs), who was scheduled to make his fourth defence of the middleweight title he captured from Andy Lee in December 2015, said in a statement the negative test was a result of using “a common decongestant nasal spray”.