By Lem Satterfield
Former junior middleweight champion Fernando Vargas is no stranger to the topic of steroids and understands the paranoia by boxers who believe their opponents are using performance enhancing drugs. Vargas tested positive for stanozozol following his 11th-round knockout loss to Oscar De La Hoya in Las Vegas in September 2002. Vargas was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for nine months and paid a $100,000 fine after the stanozolol turned up in a post-fight urinalysis.
As Vargas looks back on the events that led up to the positive test, he only blames himself.
"Today, you know, I blame nobody but myself. I took three different types of pills and I thought that they were vitamins, but still, now, I blame nobody but myself," said Vargas. "Because, you know, at the end of the day, it's still me putting something into my body. So, I blame nobody but myself. But I've tried not to think about anything to do with that and I've moved on."
"It doesn't matter if it's the Pacquiao and Mosley fight or any other. I think that drug testing should be happening for any fight. In every fight in general, it doesn't matter."
Vargas has been following the controversial debate on drug testing as it relates the biggest fight in boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao. The two boxers failed to reach an agreement on the drug testing terms in their prior negotiations. Mayweather wanted random Olympic style drug testing until the day of the fight, and Pacquiao wanted the testing to cease, at least the blood testing, two weeks before the fight.
Vargas agrees with both sides. He says Mayweather-Pacquiao should involve a drug testing system, but they shouldn't be testing the fighters too close to the fight.
"In the sport of boxing, it should be like a given that you're going to be doing drug testing -- whether it's blood and urine, I have no problem with that," said Vargas. "Just as as long as it's not too close to the fight, you know what I mean? I mean, they should do it before the fight and after the fight, and they should do it worldwide. I just think that that's something that should happen for all fighters."
Vargas believes both boxers can make a good case to support their arguments on the subject.
"I know that Manny's told his representatives that he felt that it was a mental thing with him," said Vargas. "I can understand that if he feels like if they're already drug-testing him with urine, then why do they have to do it again?. I can also understand that he can feel in his head that it makes him weaker."
"I can understand Floyd's point of view and I definitely understand the standpoint of Floyd saying, you know, 'how can this guy start out his career being so small, and then, come all the way up?' I mean, you know, that can be pretty mind-boggling for him being able to have the power that he still does and to be able to withstand the power that he does. Going from 106 pounds and up into the 147 and 150s, that's definitely something that is an eye-opener."
Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com. To read more from Lem Satterfield, go to AOL FanHouse by Clicking Here.
