ESPN's senior boxing writer, Dan Rafael, reported that on the eve of signing the contract for boxing's biggest mega-fight in decades, Manny Pacquiao (not Floyd Mayweather) is balking at a provision for Olympic-style testing for performance enhancing drugs (PED's) and threatening to walk away.
The potential mega-mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao is seen by all in the boxing and the sports communities as having the ability to surpass all known monetary standards. This fight is expected to sell approximately 3 million pay-per-views (ppv's); with ppv's expected to sell for at least $50 each, you can easily begin to calculate the magnitude of money potentially generated by this sporting spectacle.
All of the usual sticking points have apparently been settled: fighters split of proceeds (purse), site (MGM Garden Arena...sorry Jerry Jones and Dallas Cowboy Stadium), the date (March 13th), weight limit and financial penalties for being over the weight limit. Therefore, it begs to question- Why would Manny Pacquiao hesitate and jeopardize the largest payday in modern boxing history?
Pacquiao apparently feels that the current Nevada State Athletic Commission's standards are adequate. He also states that he hates to have his blood drawn as required by Olympic-style testing, known as WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency or US Anti-Doping Agency) testing. Furthermore, he is superstitious and has never undergone this procedure before any of his other major fights.
A bit of information is in order to help better divine his possible true motivation.
I will not bore you with the minutia but the most glaring differences between Nevada's process and WADA's are: the samples being tested, the level of scrutiny and what substances can be easily detected in those samples. Simply put. Nevada tests urine and WADA tests blood for banned substances.
Testing urine can find an illegal drop in a bucket. Testing blood can find an illegal drop in an Olympic-size swimming pool. Possibly far more important, current urine testing does NOT test for Human Growth Hormone (Hgh) and blood testing does.
Athletes in general and fighters in specific are definitely superstitious and no one likes getting their blood drawn. But let's be honest. If this fight takes place, each fighter stand's to make around $50 million...win lose or draw.
And the last time that I checked there is a recession going on.
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While I agree that Pacquiao should go with the blood testing, coming from a medical standpoint, and experience, and depending on if you are asking him to do this right before a fight: you feel weaker after they draw blood from you, period. You have to eat something right after the draw. How can one ask a boxer to do that? I think it would make more sense to do it after the fight.
As for the testing itself: whoever conducts the testing should be independent of both parties including the boxing organization so no one will have an excuse to dispute the results. Seems to me that Pacquiao is being reasonable. And to be really honest? Pacquiao should not have to be subjected to this insanity: if he really was taking steroids, his muscles would be larger than his body frame can handle.
Professional as it may show on your profile ... here, cross examination.
The world will appreciate your answer as scientific, technical and factual as you know them well professionally.
“My mission is to explain the physical and social impact of orthopedics upon sports and daily life. I pray that my articulate straight-forward style will help to transcend barriers and defy popular stereotypes.” ...... explain well, doctor.
Thank you.
Justice101
Synthetic Hgh is only detectable for about 48 hours after injection by current methods (source Dr. Gary Wadler -Chairman of Methods Sub-Committee WADA)...credible enough for you?
With such a brief window of detection, it should be clear why testing must be random with absolutely no pre-arranged cut-off date. An athlete could easily manipulate the system if they knew when test was arranged to be given or when they could no longer be tested.
"Blood tests, 5 days before and MINUTES after the fight - sufficient or not?"
Being an authority figure as you are, would you endorse a world wide WADA testing on athletes, sports superstars, person of any color/nationality?
Are all athletes, subjects to WADA (in particular) testing?
Would you say Nevada and California Sports State Commissions are not credible, inaccurate, inadequate, incapable .... what is the most appropriate term?
- choose your words.
You are a professional, be level minded. Please choose your words wisely, they may haunt you back.
It maybe advisable for you to review your article again.
"And the last time that I checked there is a recession going on." - there is a very thin line between sarcasm and hypocrisy, at this point.
It is interesting to know scientific facts, specially when doctors endorse particular ways of testing (in boxing, what's next?), that may or may not shape a system, organizations etc. of many sports, nationwide or perhaps worldwide, in the future.
Thank you for your response.
Good enough for me.
Manny has to agree to give a blood test because Mayweather says so? Wbat if LeBron demanded that Kobe take a blood test before the NBA finals? I think Kobe's answer would be, "blankety blank." Why should Manny be different? Show me a situaion in sports history where one superstar had to acquiesce to another?
Still...Manny has agreed to take a blood test after the fight. Where's the logic in him using? Would he think, "I'm going to use steroids, beat up Mayweather, then take the test, fail...and be disgraced, letting down my country and ruining all my future plans."
Manny was already mostly muscle and he has plenty of testosterone. He wouldn't need steroids to dense up and it could affect his heart in the fight. HGH, on the other hand, would explain and quick size/power jump, without the cardiovascular effects, while retaining his speed and density. Also look at him. HGH...
I also wouldn't be surprised if he were given some kind of amphetamine or adrenaline to keep his energy up and his pain tolerance high. If you look at the Cotto fight, his head was getting snapped back and he didn't look hurt even as his eardrum was breaking.
Why does he train in the Philippines for the first couple months, while he's strength training and conditioning and then move to LA for the last month????? To take a bunch of supplements in a shady, unregulated country and then to strain them out by the fight! NFL Players take stuff in the off season. I would do the same thing.
Response: Pacquiao's training includes being hit by a wooden board for pain endurance. Please see his interview on Jimmy Kimmel.
"Why does he train in the Philippines for the first couple months, while he's strength training and conditioning and then move to LA for the last month?????"
Response (taken from a news report): "Manny Pacquiao stands to pay millions in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service of the US if he insists in holding his entire training camp for the November 14 fight with Miguel Cotto on American soil.
Owing to an IRS regulation called the Substantial Presence Test, Pacquiao has been told by Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum to spend the first half of his eight-week training camp outside the US to avoid shelling out “millions of dollars.”
"Arum said if Pacquiao insists on training exclusively on US territory just like in the past, his earnings will be subjected to taxes.
But if Pacquiao follows Arum’s advise, “just his purse for the fight (with Cotto) will be subject to tax.”
Pacquiao has agreed to be tested so long as its not within 30days before the fight. He's agreed to be tested before said 30day period and after the fight. Mayweather knew that's Pacquiao's practice, so why insist on something Pacquiao has not agreed to his entire career?
While we are dabbling in conjecture, let me make one based on the fact that at age 16, both Pacman and Floyd weighed around 106 lbs. Just by being consistent with your argumentation, the conjecture can be made that since Floyd is much heavier than Pac whom you are accusing to be on something, then Floyd must also be taking something and a lot more than Pac at that.
You are probably shaking your head in a disagreement by now but that is how it is when you accuse someone without any concrete evidence. So careful with how you make your arguments. They are amateurish.
Floyd claims that "Olympic style testing will ensure that both fighters will compete at the highest level of fairness". With this statement, he must also think that coming in TWO POUNDS OVER over the contracted weight limit in the Marquez fight is FAIR. NOT! The word for this is spelled H Y P O C R I S Y.
Floyd is running scared of Pacquiao. That is what it boils down to.
In addition, Schaefer told ESPN.com that the sides had agreed on an unprecedented penalty if either fighter weighed in heavier than the contract limit of 147 pounds.
“We agreed to $10 million per pound, or fraction thereof,” Schaefer said. “That’s what the Pacquiao side wanted and we said OK to that. That’s unheard of. We have agreed on everything except for this drug testing issue.
Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said a blood test can allow testers to detect use of energy-boosting synthetic EPO, human growth hormone and “a number of potent performance-enhancers not detectable in urine. . . . With a [30-day] window like that, you could dope to the gills and get away with it.”Pac is scared of needles? That is what Arum said and yet he has many tatoos .Mayweather, is willing to take the test, and if Manny doesn’t have anything to hide, he is only going to be raising suspicion by not agreeing.
Now to the 10million per pound penalty you mentioned. Coming to a fight overweight is a violation of the contract and has to be penalized. Floyd makes a statement that "Olympic style testing will ensure that both fighters will fight at the highest level of fairness". How then is it fair that he comes in two pounds over the contracted limit in the Marquez fight? That is plain hypocrisy and is to be expected from a person like Floyd.
I guess this is a real down day for those haters of Mayweather who taught they had found the savior to deal with the "arrogant" one. It just happens that the savior is a fraud.
But even if Team Pacquiao fully agrees to it, I will not be surprised if the next thing that Floyd asks for is a headgear. Floyd is scared of the Pacman. Even Floyd Sr who evidently has had many experiences with drugs has said on video that would not want his son to fight the Pacman after seeing the beating that Cotto took.
Accuse all you want but as long as Pacman lives by the rules of the governing bodies of boxing, he is clean.
Point here is that in a fight of this magnitude . . with several key demands on each side . . there is a level that you meet half way. Manny has not said, he will not take any blood tests. Manny's camp indicated that given the stature of this fight . . on top of the Nevada required tests of comprehensive urinalysis . . they will agree to blood testing e.g. before the fight (30 days) and just after the fight. WADA made a good point that if the period in question is around 30 days, that is not appropriate. However, what these people don't emphasize, is that taking it just after the fight . . would be a good test specimen and should satisfy the verification of any performance enhancing standard (e.g. the idea of using a washing agent to mask the drugs . . voids any other comment that blood tests are credible). Therefore, what Manny has provided as a middle offer is appropriate. The other interesting angle . . is that Manny might just get pissed off and call Mayweather his bluff and say - "okay, lets do this Olympic tests . . and expand to the key members of the team to ensure