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The response on social media from ex-Olympic boxer turned CBD oil entrepreneur Anthony Fowler to someone questioning a bizarre and dangerous claim he’d made about his products revealed much about the risks attached to challenging his theories and taking him on.
Fowler was expounding to his 121,000 followers on X at the weekend about how his Supreme CBD brand had ‘shrunk’ a tumour on his one-year-old daughter’s leg, when someone asked him if there was actually ‘any proof’ of this.
Fowler told the individual that he was a ‘sad weak man’ who should ‘pipe down’. When the exchange escalated, he posted a foul and unprintable insult to the responder and told him he was being ‘blocked’.
The recipient of this foul-mouthed abuse, who has asked to remain anonymous for fear of being trolled on social media, tells Daily Mail Sport that he has challenged Fowler on numerous occasions, having been ‘appalled’ by his ‘claims that he had "cured" or can prevent autism, ADHD and cancer’.
The claim that Fowler’s products are a cancer ‘cure’ - backed up by the former model Katie Price, who with her 1.7million followers on X is one of his ‘influencers’ – is horrifying and appalling. It escalates the potential risk that Fowler’s medical claims are creating, if impressionable and desperate parents decide to abandon the idea of hospital treatment for their children.
Fowler’s aggressive response to the challenger symbolised his apparent disregard for concerns about his grandiose and clinically dubious claims, detailed in a Daily Mail Sport investigation into his Supreme CBD business, last week.
Anthony Fowler has been promoting bizarre and dangerous claims to his social media followers
Fowler was expounding to his 121,000 followers on X, at the weekend, about how his Supreme CBD brand had ‘shrunk’ a tumour on his one-year-old daughter’s leg
Fowler’s aggressive response to his challenger symbolised his apparent disregard for concerns about his grandiose and clinically dubious claims
Fowler, the 2013 AIBA World Boxing Championships bronze medallist in his sporting pomp, seems to be choosing to ignore our report. Despite telling a Daily Mail Sport journalist who has been posing as a potential customer: ‘Yeah mate, I’ve seen it,’ he has made no challenge to any of its detail, either privately or publicly.
He continues to refuse our multiple requests to discuss his claims, which include the promotion of a ‘treatment’ for autism which the NHS deems ‘fake’ and potentially ‘harmful’.
He has taken down an Instagram reel recorded in Italy, featured in our report, which pictured him strolling down a street with his son, Luca, and claiming to have found a miraculous answer to the boy’s autism in that country.
Yet his squad of Supreme CBD sports ‘influencers’ - Matt Le Tissier, Paul Merson, former Liverpool goalkeeper Chris Kirkland and ex-Nottingham Forest stopper Mark Crossley - have been back at work, busily posting messages promoting his CBD products in the past week. All included promotional codes with their tweets, suggesting that they will be paid for converting their fans to Supreme CBD. All appear to have become tainted by the association, whatever benefits they may perceive.
In the past few days, Fowler has continued to exchange messages with the under-cover Daily Mail Sport journalist about the fake autism treatment ‘chelation’, which he claimed had worked for his son. ‘Give me a message for anymore (sic)’ he messaged to say, when we asked for further detail on that.
More detail on this or any other of Fowler’s bizarre autism ‘treatments’, including one relating to ‘brain inflammation’, have not been forthcoming. Our ‘customer’ has been told only to try CBD ‘gummies’ out on his autistic nine-year-old nephew - with bank details supplied for ‘Anthony Fowler Limited’.
This is a direct and flagrant contravention of Food Standards Authority (FSA) guidance that cannabis oil products should not be taken by anyone under 18.
Experts this week voiced fears that Fowler’s suggestions to his followers - 190k on Instagram - to take his products for serious illnesses will mean his CBD being used in conjunction with medicines, with unpredictable consequences.
Fowler, the 2013 AIBA World Boxing Championships bronze medallist in his sporting pomp, seems to be choosing to ignore our report
Fowler with former England footballer Emile Heskey. He has a number of celebrities promoting his products
He continues to refuse our multiple requests to discuss his claims, which include the promotion of a ‘treatment’ for autism which the NHS deems ‘fake’ and potentially ‘harmful’
‘People that might be attracted to CBD supplements have generally got a health problem of some sort, so the chance of them taking a prescribed medication as well is always greater,’ Ian Hamilton, associate professor in addiction at York University, tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘It’s that interaction I worry about – between CBD and a prescribed medication they are taking.’
Fowler’s air of untouchability in his new persona as medical guru and self-styled life adviser, posing bare-chested to film video selfies, seems to be borne of the supreme self-confidence he always had as a boxer.
When he arrived at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as one of Britain’s most touted hopes for a medal, he harboured no doubts about his own potential for glory. ‘I delayed turning pro so that in five years I can have an Olympic gold medal and then a world title,' he said. 'I will be turning pro after the Games.'
Fowler, cousin of Liverpool football legend Robbie Fowler, was promptly knocked down and overwhelmingly outpointed by Kazakhstan’s obscure middleweight Janibek Alimkhanuly.
If he believes he can carry that same air of invincibility into the world of alternative medicine, then he may find another heavy blow coming his way from one of a number of regulators whose task it is to protect the British public.
Since 2023, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has published two formal rulings against Supreme CBD - finding that its ‘influencers’ had failed to reveal they were being paid to promote his products.
And, even more concerning because of the level of potential detriment to consumers, that those celebrities were making medical and health claims for the cannabis oil products, in breach of advertising industry rules.
Most advertisers amend or withdraw their ads when the ASA rule against them, accepting help from the body’s compliance teams, but repeated breaches of the rules can see the ASA work with social media platforms and search engines to remove material. The ASA can also refer serial offenders to Trading Standards, who have the power to prosecute through the courts.
Daily Mail Sport has flagged the findings of our initial investigation report to the ASA, who are examining it.
Fowler’s air of untouchability in his new persona as medical guru, posing bare-chested to film video selfies, seems to be borne of the supreme self-confidence he always had as a boxer
Daily Mail Sport has flagged the findings of our initial investigation report to the ASA, who are examining it
The Food Standards Agency is equally clear in its own rules on the sale of cannabis oil products - stipulating that it does not recommend CBD for children under 18 and other ‘vulnerable groups’.
In July, as part of the work it is currently doing to regulate this important and complex area, the FSA advised all CBD food businesses to review their product labelling, to ensure safety information including the age restrictions were displayed. No such age restriction is stated on the Supreme CBD product we have bought.
CBD products being consumed by children would be deemed unsafe under general food law. The FSA recommends that anyone who suspects a food business is selling unsafe food should report it to their local authority to investigate and take any necessary enforcement action.
Fowler has been busy suggesting to his followers on Twitter this week that the established medical world is not doing enough to conquer cancers, with the obvious inference from that being his CBD products are the answer. On Tuesday afternoon, his Instagram focus turned to a child he claims has found a non-medical cure for cancer. They were calling it her ‘brain tumour journey’.
There were plenty of voices pleading with him to desist. ‘Advertising the idea that CBD can heal a child’s tumour is abhorrent,’ said one mother. ‘Dangerous false information like this is appalling,’ said another. ‘People take this stuff as gospel and then refuse medical advice. It causes so much unspeakable harm.’ Neither wanted to put their name to their thoughts.
