Comments Thread For: Jessie Vargas 'No Coward,' Joins The Fight Against PEDs

[Resilient]

Here's the thing though, from my knowledge, Tim Bradley does not do year-round testing with VADA. He's just been using them for each of his fights (just as Mayweather does with USADA). Bradley is also not being sponsored, he pays for it out of pocket, and he's not doing it year-round. The few guys that are doing it year-round are doing this because of Victor Conte. Somehow, someway, Conte is sponsoring their year-round tests.

Next up, Pacquaio. Team Pacquaio originally announced that Pacquaio would be using USADA and/or VADA before the Rios bout was announced. And this was especially decided when it known that Memo Heredia was the strength and conditioning coach of Brandon Rios. But right before training camp started, Rios dropped Heredia and hired Ariza. So bringing in VADA had nothing to do with Ariza.

One last tidbit -- according to Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather Promotions fighters are now testing 24/7 year-round via USADA. I'm partially skeptical, but I'm also persuaded to believe this is true to internally prevent any further embarrassment to Floyd.

Is Floyd doing that 24/7 testing too?

[Inkanyamba]

Is Floyd doing that 24/7 testing too?

Actually, yes. When Bey and Love tested positive (for weight loss drugs, not PEDs) Floyd said he was going to enroll his entire gym to go through 24/7 random testing with USADA I believe. Has he gone through with it yet, I'm not sure. But he's expressed interested. Now if only other gyms went through the same testing...

[JakeNDaBox]

Actually, yes. When Bey and Love tested positive (for weight loss drugs, not PEDs) Floyd said he was going to enroll his entire gym to go through 24/7 random testing with USADA I believe. Has he gone through with it yet, I'm not sure. But he's expressed interested. Now if only other gyms went through the same testing...

Bey tested positive for extraordinarily high levels of testosterone, not for weight-loss drugs. His name was cleared (at least in court of public opinion) when it was learned that it was from therapy session and at the fault of a physician, not his own.

Love tested positive for Hydrochlorothiazide, which is used to mask PED use. Its use on its own is not a weight-loss supplement - in fact, one of the side effects to the drug is weight GAIN. Dan Rafael spoke through someone else's comments when he made that claim, and Kizer himself merely speculated as to when and why Love took it.

And it has now been repeated that Floyd and Mayweather Promotions fighters are undergoing 24/7 random drug testing, but nobody has yet to provide a shred of proof that it's actually happening.

Ellerbe made a grand announcement MORE THAN ONE YEAR AGO that it was coming, and that Love would be swiftly dealt with for his action. His big punishment was a $10,000 fine from a $100,000 purse, and a six-month suspension. He returned to the ring one month later, which meant he was training while suspended, which is actually a violation of a ring suspension (though a common violation throughout the sport, as it actually has to be monitored in order to be detected and reported). Not only that, but his ring return was televised on ShoBox.

[tangalog2200]

Yes, the NSAC tests are not useless. The problem is it ends up being kind of a joke because of the number of times it's done (which is like once or twice and the fighters know the dates). If it were done more times and randomly, it would be much better.

And yeah, Commissions like NSAC run their own tests regardless of whether or not a fighter is taking extra tests through services like USADA or VADA.

thanks a lot for the clarification...

so to me what the problems besetting proper drug testing really are financing and logistics