by David P. Greisman

Manny Pacquiao is winning fights because he’s on performance-enhancing drugs. Shane Mosley lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. because he’s no longer on performance-enhancing drugs. Kermit Cintron intentionally dove out of the ring to get out of his fight with Paul Williams. Kelly Pavlik wouldn’t even get in the ring with Williams, ducking him by claiming to be injured. Nate Campbell is a quitter.

All are preposterous assumptions. All became preposterous assertions.

There is little need for evidence, or even truth, in this society. Debate and discussion has become argument. A man merely needs speak loudest to get his point across. He then only needs to repeat his point again and again for unfounded opinion to become unchallenged fact.

Pessimism is rampant. It is becoming too common to assume the worst, shoot first, and ask questions later.

Like a rumor raging through the halls of a high school, accusations of Manny Pacquiao being on performance-enhancing drugs spread and spread until it didn’t matter that there was no evidence. Instead, armchair biologists and scientists became instant experts. Often, those who determined that Pacquiao is dirty were those who already disliked him.

Opinion is analyzing the facts to form a certain perspective. Bias is manipulating the facts so that they paint a certain picture. The most single-minded can take everything and make it mean anything.

Everybody’s an expert. Here is Teddy Atlas, the trainer and color commentator for ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights,” answering the question as to why Shane Mosley lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. by raising a question of his own:

“Is this the first time that we’ve seen Shane Mosley recently fight without the help of performance enhancing drugs?” Atlas said on last week’s broadcast.” Let’s be honest here. We know that he’s been guilty of using them. He testified himself in a disposition that he used them.

“It’s only fair,” Atlas said. “Mayweather forced one of the conditions .... He made Mosley take Olympic-type testing before he would allow himself to get in the ring with Mosley. So Mosley was not able to use any performance-enhancing drugs if he was inclined to. … His body looked a little different. He looked sluggish. He looked gassed a little bit. He looked like he didn’t have the confidence. Was it because he was 38? Or … was it because he didn’t have the help of a substance that maybe he had in the past?”

Mosley had testified to using performance-enhancing drugs prior to his 2003 rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. But why is it fair to assume that Mosley would continue using in the years since, even after being implicated, and would only stop once blood tests were put in place for the Mayweather fight? Tests, mind you, that Mosley agreed to prior to the toughest fight of his career.

The reason why the athletes who used BALCO drugs were long able to get away with it is because those drugs were not being tested for. Anti-doping experts are constantly playing catch-up with dopers. But sometimes the simplest answers are the correct answers.

Mosley was coming off a 15-month layoff – and anyone who watches Atlas on “Friday Night Fights” knows how much he looks at a fighter’s inactivity in breaking down a bout. He was in against a younger, faster and better fighter. He was tight and loading up on shots, both of which drain energy.

Will we ever be certain that Mosley didn’t use performance enhancing drugs between 2003 and now? No. But we can’t be certain that he did, and we’ve no reason to believe that he did. But Atlas took the facts – Mosley’s admission of past use, his physical appearance and his performance – and manipulated them so that they would paint the picture he wanted to paint.

I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Alexander Povetkin, the heavyweight contender trained by Atlas, wants Wladimir Klitschko to undergo strict tests for performance-enhancing drugs before those two meet.

Atlas’ ties to Povetkin probably don’t have anything to do with it. But why not be pessimistic, shoot first and ask questions later?

Why not insist that Kermit Cintron dove out of the ring on purpose Saturday against Paul Williams and then faked his injury to get out of the fight?

On YouTube and on boxing message boards, some broke down the manner in which Cintron was launched from the ring as if the footage was part of the Zapruder film. They became sudden experts in physics and the physical. They insisted that after Cintron and Williams tripped over each other, Cintron intentionally jumped through the ropes. They pointed to Cintron’s foot pushing off the canvas with force as conclusive evidence.

How many football players and basketball players have made similar dives, off-balance moves made unintentionally while trying to regain their footing?

It didn’t matter that ringside reports noted that Cintron wanted to get back in the fight but that the physicians present wouldn’t let him. When fans turn on a fighter – and they turned on Cintron long ago, starting with his tears following his first loss to Antonio Margarito, continuing with his claiming a knockdown punch from Sergio Martinez was actually a head butt – they assume the worst.

Shoot first. Ask questions later. Questions like why Cintron would suddenly decide to pull such a move when he was in a competitive fight against Williams. He had landed hard counters. He had neither been hurt nor broken down.

If a fighter isn’t Rocky Balboa asking his corner to cut him open. If a fighter isn’t Arturo Gatti fighting through closed eyes and broken hands. If a fighter isn’t Willis Reed limping onto the basketball court, then he is a faker or a quitter, all because of unrealistic expectations.

Nate Campbell, unable to see out of his left eye, was labeled a quitter. Kelly Pavlik, who struggled with a staph infection, was accused of ducking Paul Williams after postponing their bout twice.

No ire was ever directed at Israel Vazquez for quitting against Rafael Marquez, a move of self-preservation that led to Vazquez being healthy enough to beat Marquez in their next two wars.

No need for consistency. No need for evidence. No need for truth. There is just pessimism, fueled by skepticism. Assume the worst. Those assumptions become accusations, sung loud, sung again and again, refrains that are repeated until they are all that is remembered.

The 10 Count

1.  The good news is Williams-Cintron ended just in time for Betty White on “Saturday Night Live.”

The bad news is some of you probably missed Betty White’s tour de force and instead watched Antonio Margarito’s return to the boxing ring.

Margarito beat Roberto Garcia by decision on an independent Top Rank pay-per-view. The bout saw Margarito knock Garcia down in the first round and then spend much of the remainder of the fight out-boxing Garcia, pretending to be a matador and making the crowd exclaim “Olé!” with every Margarito duck or dodge.

Margarito could face Manny Pacquiao should Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. again not be able to come to terms on the mega-fight to end all mega-fights.

Can’t you just picture Pacquiao-Margarito being portrayed as the story of a guy caught with tampered hand wraps facing a guy baselessly accused of using performance enhancing drugs?

2.  Pardon me, but here comes a rant:

I must object to “Boxing faces questions about culture,” an article published on ESPN.com last week and written by Elizabeth Merrill. The writer somehow tied together the deaths of Alexis Arguello, Vernon Forrest, Arturo Gatti, Darren Sutherland and Edwin Valero, putting them under the same umbrella in what seemed an attempt to say boxing is somewhat to blame.

I wasn’t offended because of me being a boxing writer. Heck, I’m the guy who does “Boxers Behaving Badly” – I’m wholly aware of the legal issues some boxers confront outside of the ring. No, I was offended as a journalist and as a reader who has seen too many writers make the mistake of trying to build a “trend story” where there is no trend.

The problem was that Merrill attempted to shoehorn evidence to fit her thesis, to say that certain variables are common among boxers and as such contribute to their violent deaths. If this were a medical study, it would be poor science. Instead, this was a journalistic study, and it was poor rhetoric.

“People close to the sport acknowledge there are factors that might contribute to a boxer’s volatility,” Merrill wrote. “A boxer sometimes goes an entire year without fighting, which leaves months of down time and plenty of time to get involved with drugs, alcohol and bad elements. The pressure is immense; the buildup to a fight is enormous.”

Merrill drops in potential factors: substance-abuse issues; the rise from rags to riches and the lack of control that comes with it; behavioral problems due to concussions.

It’s more than a stretch. The logic is broken.

As Steve Kim of MaxBoxing.com put it regarding Forrest, Arguello and Gatti: “So when someone gets carjacked, is used as a political pawn and murdered by a wife, that’s boxing’s fault?” [Note: Gatti’s death was ruled a suicide, though many suspect the murder investigation was faulty and led to Gatti’s wife being let off the hook.]

Here are some questions Merrill and her editors should’ve asked:

Are any of the problems, such as substance abuse, domestic violence and depression, only seen with boxers? Are those problems seen in other athletes? Heck, are they seen in “regular people” as well? Isn’t it possible that those boxers who do get in trouble are a representative slice of the overall population? Is the number of boxers with such problems large, or are those with problems the exceptions to the rule?

Have any studies been done on the dead boxers to see what role post-concussive disorders played? Has there been any indication that boxers who met violent ends had problems similar to football players and wrestlers who either committed suicide or killed others?

How many college and professional athletes have legal issues? How often do we hear about the sense of entitlement seen in college and professional athletes, of people who never were told “no” and have been provided everything they always wanted? Are Ben Roethlisberger and Lawrence Taylor’s history of problems representative of football, or rather of the way some high-profile athletes are coddled, their problems swept under the rug?

Oh, and instead of trying to offer to shoehorn in evidence that fit her thesis, did Merrill actually investigate to see if anything but the individual circumstances of the lives of Alexis Arguello, Vernon Forrest, Arturo Gatti, Darren Sutherland and Edwin Valero are what led to their deaths?

Rant over.

3.  Boxers Behaving Badly update: A lawsuit involving accusations of sexual harassment against Miguel Cotto, his wife and his late father has been settled out of court a month before it was to go to trial, according to Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia (via BoxingScene’s Mark Vester).

The lawsuit was filed last year in Puerto Rico by a woman who ran a residential property Cotto owns. She claimed the former 140- and 147-pound titlist made advances toward her, and she gave in because she was afraid of losing her job. She claimed she was fired in October 2008 after ending the relationship.

The woman had been asking for $511,000. The settlement was $47,500, with Cotto not acknowledging any fault.

Cotto, 29, is 34-2 with 27 knockouts and is fighting next month against 154-pound titleholder Yuri Foreman.

4.  Boxers Behaving Badly, part one: Undefeated prospect Archie Ray Marquez was arrested last week on domestic violence charges, according to New Mexico television station KRQE.

Marquez, 21, is accused of hitting his wife and then trying to take the phone away from her as she called police. He’s been charged with “aggravated battery on a household member and interference with communications,” according to the report.

Marquez, who fights between junior lightweight and lightweight, was scheduled to fight this coming Friday. Though Marquez is out on bail, that bout is now off.  He is 10-0 with 7 knockouts. His last appearance was a January decision win over Derrick Campos on “ShoBox: The New Generation.”

5.  So long, Lennox Lewis. Hello, Freddie Roach?

The former heavyweight champion is out after four years as color commentator for HBO Boxing. His last broadcast was April 24.

If you follow HBO’s news release, “Lewis will be leaving his post as commentator to begin fundraising efforts for his international training academy. Lennox is looking forward to developing a state of the art training facility for young boxers to improve their competitiveness in professional competition. Lewis also continues to explore innovative business ventures and film and television projects.”

Right.

If you follow ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael, who talked to multiple sources in the know, “leaving was not Lewis’ decision and the network did not want him back. Lewis, who was heavily criticized for his on-air style, was informed of the decision late last week. His contract expired and he was not offered a new deal.”

The best part of that HBO news release? The fact that HBO basically acknowledged the bull that was to come by noting it was “an advisory regarding Lennox Lewis that we were asked to distribute.”

Translation: Lewis’ publicist is trying to put a positive spin on this.

6.  Replacing Lewis will be Freddie Roach, according to a report by Paul Upham of SecondsOut.com.

I’ve not read any confirmation of that – Upham’s story only cites “sources close to the situation” as to Lewis being let go.

But Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports did have a brief report last month about Freddie Roach donning the headsets alongside HBO’s Bob Papa for an audition during the April 17 fight between Kelly Pavlik and Sergio Martinez.

“Roach wasn’t auditioning for HBO,” Iole wrote. “Rather, he was testing for a spot as an analyst on Top Rank’s foreign broadcast feed” for the June 5 fight between Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto.

Cotto-Foreman is when Upham said Roach would likely join the broadcast team. But Iole’s report said Roach would not be on the air June 5 because the Roach-trained Vanes Martirosyan will be fighting on the undercard that night.

Also, as Iole noted, Roach is a busy, busy trainer. Could he really fit in enough time for HBO broadcast duties?

If not, here’s some guys I’d like to see HBO consider:

Shannon Briggs, Nate Campbell, Joe Mesi, John Scully. And if they want to go for a quotable trainer, what about Naazim Richardson?

But my top choice? Mike Tyson.

More on that below.

7.  Tyson did color commentary on DonKingTV.com last October for the non-televised undercard to Joseph Agbeko-Yonnhy Perez. Here was one of his great quotes, via the Las Vegas Sun:

“It is so ironic that the jab can be so effective in a fight, in this game, and that’s why it’s more a science than being the big, strong tough guy from a bad neighborhood. A guy who never had a street fight in his life can be a master in here. He can give you an awful shellacking.”

Tyson would be great. Not only would he be the level of celebrity HBO has gone for with its expert analysts (Sugar Ray Leonard, George Foreman, Roy Jones Jr., Lennox Lewis), but he could actually offer insightful analysis.

He sure couldn’t do any worse than Lewis, whose commentating career began with the overuse of “definitely” and “absolutely” and improved until the point he could offer this: “Andrade really wants to hit him.”

8.  The only potential issue? Tyson’s reliability.

Tyson had been considered for the analyst role to April’s Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones Jr. pay-per-view, according to Doug Fischer of RingTV.com, who did color commentary for the broadcast alongside Joe Tessitore and Sugar Ray Leonard.

As Golden Boy Promotions was trying to cement its broadcast team, Fischer asked the company’s chief operating officer, David Itskowitch, whether Tyson was onboard.

“It’s on and off again,” Itskowitch told Fischer. “You never know with Tyson.”

9.  Speaking of Tyson, apparently the former heavyweight champion has gone vegan, according to the Associated Press, citing a television interview taped last week for broadcast later this month.

That, of course, led to predictable and lame jokes:

- The San Diego Union-Tribune “wonders if Evander Holyfield has ‘heard’ the meat-free news.”

- The Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader: “Now isn’t the best time to be an ear of corn … or Tex Cobb.”

Yawn.

10.  If you’re going to go for unfunny, at least try to be original.

Here, let me show you how:

Ahem.

“Iron” Mike Tyson? Now he’s “Iron deficient” Mike Tyson.

Thanks, folks, I’ll be here next week.

(And I’ll let you know next week just how many vegetarians and vegans wrote in to remind me that dropping meat from one’s diet doesn’t lead to iron deficiency. Never let the truth get in the way of a good joke. Or even a bad joke.)

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com