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by David P. Greisman - The news of Mickey Bey’s positive test for elevated testosterone raised eyebrows, at first, because of how outrageously high the results were.
His testosterone to epitestosterone ratio was more than 30:1, the second-highest ratio the Nevada State Athletic Commission had ever seen, five times higher than the commission maximum of 6:1, and more than seven times the World Anti-Doping Agency maximum of 4:1.
Those following the case of Bey’s positive test would soon raise their eyebrows once more, this time because of how outrageously low they saw the amount of his fine and the length of his suspension as being.
They saw it not just as inadequate punishment given the nature of the offense, but also as woefully disproportionate when contrasted with the verdict the commission had handed down to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. just a few weeks before.
Chavez, who had tested positive in the state in 2009 for a banned diuretic, had come up positive last September for using marijuana prior to his fight with middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. For this second offense, for a substance not considered by many to be performance enhancing, Chavez was suspended for nine months and fined 30 percent of his purse, a whopping $900,000.
Bey, caught with a performance-enhancing drug in his system, would leave his March 20 hearing with a three-month suspension, a $1,000 fine — 1/8 of his purse, and 1/900 the size of Chavez’s fine — and with his Feb. 2 third-round knockout of Robert Rodriguez overturned into a “no contest.”
Sports fans have had their eyes opened during more than a decade of revelations about athletes seeking to get away seemingly with anything, and everything, in order to compete at an even higher level. So many have tested positive for banned substances, while others have been connected to pharmacies and doctors found to be illicitly distributing these drugs. [Click Here To Read More]
His testosterone to epitestosterone ratio was more than 30:1, the second-highest ratio the Nevada State Athletic Commission had ever seen, five times higher than the commission maximum of 6:1, and more than seven times the World Anti-Doping Agency maximum of 4:1.
Those following the case of Bey’s positive test would soon raise their eyebrows once more, this time because of how outrageously low they saw the amount of his fine and the length of his suspension as being.
They saw it not just as inadequate punishment given the nature of the offense, but also as woefully disproportionate when contrasted with the verdict the commission had handed down to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. just a few weeks before.
Chavez, who had tested positive in the state in 2009 for a banned diuretic, had come up positive last September for using marijuana prior to his fight with middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. For this second offense, for a substance not considered by many to be performance enhancing, Chavez was suspended for nine months and fined 30 percent of his purse, a whopping $900,000.
Bey, caught with a performance-enhancing drug in his system, would leave his March 20 hearing with a three-month suspension, a $1,000 fine — 1/8 of his purse, and 1/900 the size of Chavez’s fine — and with his Feb. 2 third-round knockout of Robert Rodriguez overturned into a “no contest.”
Sports fans have had their eyes opened during more than a decade of revelations about athletes seeking to get away seemingly with anything, and everything, in order to compete at an even higher level. So many have tested positive for banned substances, while others have been connected to pharmacies and doctors found to be illicitly distributing these drugs. [Click Here To Read More]
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