How many times do we hear boxing is losing credibility without a drug test program? I will admit, I have argued that boxing should enforce a blood test for every fighter. There have been countless fighters who have failed the urine test and tested positive for illegal substances.
I think we all jumped in the band wagon after Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao couldn’t come to an agreement about taking the Olympic style drug-testing. Floyd Mayweather demanded the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) to oversee blood and urine testing and though many Mayweather opponents have agreed like Shane Mosley, Victor Ortiz and now Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao refused to and the fight couldn’t be made.
How else can we convince boxing fans that the sport is clean and that the fighters are legitimate if we don’t enforce the rule? The answer is very simple, we’re not. As much as I support blood testing, I got over the fact that we’re never going to enforce the rule anytime soon. Why? Because it is so darn expensive.
The cost for anti-doping tests are between $90,000 and $100,000 per fight and include both fighters according to a recent article by MaxBoxing.com Why so much is beyond me.
So how does a fighter whose purse is only 30-50 thousand going to be able to afford $90 thousand drug test? Must I remind you the 90-100K fee is good only for 14 week period. Do you really think the promoter is going to fork out that kind of money for every fight he promotes? Let alone pay for a year round drug testing?
I guess we could only enforce this rule in high profile fights where the purses are in the millions but is that being fair? I guess we can argue that the wealthy should be taxed more and penalizing the successful who have worked hard is more logical right?
The truth is with this economy no one is going to enforce the anti-doping drug testing anytime soon. We can bitch and complain all we want…but it isn’t going to happen.
Only in a perfect world.
These top athletes have access to drugs and PEDs that we may not have even heard of yet. The better our drug detection has become as to is the masking of drugs. If anyone is on twitter I would encourage you to follow Victor Conte formally of BALCO @VictorConte. He has some interesting comments, links to interesting articles and is pretty open and honest.
I would luv to see a good drug testing program that would eliminate any question that the fighters are clean but like everything else in our beloved country its just to expensive. I’ve heard about the price tag on these drug tests and I don’t care what they do or how many times they have to do it, the cost doesn’t sound justifiable. These places that do the testing know they are few and far between so they see money signs because they know there isn’t much compatition. So it’s either pay our fee or go back to the simple urine test. This article is right on, there isn’t going to be any change any time soon if ever. We can all see how many problems come up in boxing because of money; the cost of this sort of testing would make things unbareable.
Wow, i had no idea it cost so much to test an athlete for doping. I think compared to say, pro cycling, boxing is still in the dark ages as far as this is concerned. How do other sports come up with the money? How are Olympic boxers tested? Seems like some other sports, the dopers are one step ahead of the testers. Guess I never considered that it’s widespread in boxing, but if they random tested 100 boxers, i’m sure we would be shocked by how many came up positive. But, having said that, I guess I never suspected anyone would put concrete in their hand wraps either.
Correction- *Alistair Overeem
I would love the best anti-doping policy to be enforced throughout Boxing, but as this article states that would only happen in a perfect Boxing world. I’d like to give most boxers the benefit of the doubt even without random testing. Look at MMA it seems almost every 2-3 months some fighter is getting caught for illegal doping I’d encourage any Boxing fan to read the story of a MMA fighter by the name of Allister Overeem and his testosterone levels, this guy had the level of testosterone of 3 men when he was randomly tested recently, he has been accused for years and finally got caught for what most people suspected, it truly makes you wonder.
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