By Ronnie Nathanielsz
World Boxing Council president Don Jose Sulaiman says the WBC will investigate Sugar Shane Mosley after publicized court documents revealed that Mosley had testified to having injected himself with the performance-enhancing drug EPO before his rematch with Oscar De La Hoya in 2003.
In an overseas telephone conversation with insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, Sulaiman said that the world organization had instituted anti-doping laws since 1976 and that “in the 33 years of my presidency and more than one thousand fights only eleven boxers were found guilty of doping.”
Sulaiman said that “the rules of the WBC are very strict” in cases such as that of Mosley and the board of governors would take up the issue and decide on what sanctions to impose, if any.
There have been reports that the WBC may disqualify Mosley or fine him based on his own testimony that he took a performance-enhancing substance before he beat De La Hoya by a unanimous decision on September 15, 2003 to win both the WBC, WBA and IBA light middleweight titles.
In their first encounter on June 17, 2000 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles , Mosley beat De La Hoya by a split decision to win the WBC and IBA welterweight titles.
Mosley is scheduled to fight WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito on January 24 at the Staples Center.