In the third and final installment of an in-depth interview with VADA's Dr. Margaret Goodman, Tris Dixon asks if it's time for strict liability to come to the fore or, given the problems authorities seem to encounter when punishing those who fail tests, is it time to stop testing altogether?

Is it time for strict liability? 

I don’t think I’m the one to answer that. I think that that’s a question for regulators.

I mean, it's an interesting concept, though, isn’t it? Because obviously, strict liability means it’s in your body, you’re found, it’s over, it is what it is, and you’re out, and you’re facing adjudication. That’s technically what it means, right? 

Yes. I think that the thing that’s the most difficult is because we obviously get forms on fighters when they enroll in VADA. And the sad part about that is, I would say, half of the individuals that enroll don’t write down all the things they’re taking. The other half that write down all the things they’re taking, you would be astounded at how many things people are taking. I mean, I don’t even know how they have time during the day to take all of this. But irrespective of that, I think that there’s so few, except for some of the higher-profile athletes that really get their supplements tested for prohibited drugs. I mean, if there’s anything that worries me the most is when I see these lists, either these long lists, or I see a fighter not writing down anything, when I go, ‘Oh my God, I’m sure they’re taking a ton of things, at least several, that this is a risk factor for them undergoing drug testing.’ 

Is it time for zero testing and just be like, you know, let fighters take whatever? 

What about the enhanced games that they’re pushing? I think it’s different because of the inherent dangers of the sport [in boxing], and as somebody that worked so many fights and worked with fighters and saw fighters early in their career and later in their career, and that how they changed as far as cognition and speech patterns and all of these things, I don’t know how you walk away from testing not being a deterrent or trying to be a deterrent. I wish it was more of a deterrent, but how do you turn your back on that? And I know the rationale. ‘Everyone else is doing it.’ Number two, a fighter may say, ‘You know, I have such a short career’ or, ‘this is just for this fight’… I get all of that…  [But] you see the other side, and to me, I just think that smart training, less sparring as their career progresses is important, and using performance-enhancing drugs enables all the things that can be damaging.

Do you feel a certain type of way if you, if someone posts an adverse finding, VADA gets them, and then the authorities don’t, I don't want to say punish them, but suspend or ban or find them, and you’re like, ‘Well, I’ve done my job, and now it’s out of my hands.’ Or is it water off the back for you?

Again, I don’t have an opinion on that per se. We don’t like accusations that are untrue, and also I don’t want it to hurt a fighter’s career. I just think that what’s most important is to try to avoid taking anything that – if they’re undergoing drug testing – could cause and adverse result. Because it affects their career, it affects what people think of them, it affects what they may think of themselves, no one needs that.

Victor Conte recently passed away. He was a huge advocate for VADA, what do you think is his legacy in the boxing space? People still seem to be conflicted. 

I think that he was a strong voice for clean sports, for a multitude of reasons. Everyone knows Victor’s history; I think that having one less strong voice like that for clean sport is unfortunate and I wish more people would speak out for that.

Your significant other, Dr Flip Homansky, will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame next year. He’s done a lot to help make boxing a cleaner and safer place.

Yeah, when he was on the [Nevada] commission he instituted not just anti-doping but the inclusion of anabolic steroids that no commission was doing. That was important, among all the things that he’s responsible for as far as the way ringside evaluation is performed, pre-fight evaluation medicals for fighters, and fighters over a certain age, all of those things he’s responsible for. He’s a perfect candidate to be inducted for all the things that he did and continues to do. He kind of stays in the background with VADA but he’s an amazing sounding board for us. The Hall of Fame is really about the fighters, but for someone who has helped the fighters in so many ways, and you could go through the individual cases of fighters who have come before the Nevada commission for so many years, people like Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Chavez, all of these great, great athletes, he had a hand in the way things were handled with him.