By Ryan Burton

 

The final Las Vegas presser for Saturday's Vanes Martirosyan vs. Kassim Ouma clash started out in a laid back manner but as most pressers are these days - it quickly became heated.  Ouma decided to start talking trash by saying that he was going to beat Martirosyan's a$$.  The Glendale, California-based Martirosyan replied back, saying that he lets his fists do the talking but he did tell Ouma to be a man and do what he says when they are in the ring and then he played on Ouma's nickname of "The Dream" by saying he would turn his dream into "The Nightmare," which of course is Maritroysan's nickname. 

Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer had his usual speech about being appreciative of having the fight in Nevada to kick off the New Year and was looking forward to another big year of fights in the state. Afterwards Kizer spoke to BoxingScene.com about Pacquiao vs. Mayweather and a few other topics.

 

When asked if Nevada was considering blood testing in the future, Kizer said that everything is under consideration. He said they don't have any plans to make any changes at the moment, and the participants of one fight would not be a basis to change the system. Kizer feels the current testing system is pretty accurate.  He said the commission regulary looks at making improvements.  He pointed to the fact that their testing caught Fernando Vargas.  He also mentioned that even though Mosley wasn't caught on the "cream" and the "clear" that they can detect those substances now in their urine testing and that he heard people don't use those particular substances anymore because of the effective testing methods in place. 

"It is a cat and mouse game.  There are people paid a lot of money to come up with PED's that aren't detectable and there are people paid a lot of money to develop tests to detect them," Kizer told BoxingScene.com

 

Kizer feels the most important aspect of drug testing is to deter people from using them.  He would hope that in this type of sport people wouldn't use them because of the inherent danger in combat sports such as boxing and M M A but he knows that some people will do whatever it takes to get an edge. He said that if blood testing was implemented, fighters would have to be sent to labs to take such tests because of the contamination and infection hazards that are in locker rooms.  Another issue that could come about is when a nurse draws blood, they may miss the vein and have to do a second intrusion and then you may have a fighter with a sore arm which can affect the fighter's performance. Kizer knows there isn't a perfect system out there but is confident in what Nevada is currently doing.

 

That led to the subject of Antonio Margarito's suspension being lifted. Kizer wants everyone to be aware, that even if California decides to lift the suspension - other states won't necessarily follow suit - and there is also the possibility that another state may issue a license to Margarito and California may decide he needs to be suspended for a longer period. I asked Kizer if thought Nevada would license Margarito - if he first was reinstated by California - and he said the final decision would be up to the comission of Nevada. I asked if he felt Margarito would get reinstated and Kizer said he couldn't answer that because he doesn't really know which way the comission would lean.

 

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