HBO Testing. | BoxingScene Community

HBO Testing.

I watched The Fight Game with Lampley after the Pac/JMM IV replay and HBO or at least Lampley were on quite a high horse calling for boxers/promoters to clean up the sport. Why don't they either pay for their own testing done by USADA or VADA seeing as how they want to make as much money as possible I don't see that happening or they can just take it out of the fighters purse. Either way they would force mandatory testing on the fighter if they want to get paid. Cheaters will always be ahead of the game and every sport will always have "dirty" guys, but it would actually force something universal on the sport without having a governing body to do so. HBO is boxing, Showtime is as well but without HBO backing it, it simply wouldn't be half as popular as it is today at least in America. I wish HBO would just their leverage a little more, for the good of the sport, they have been doing that somewhat recently though.

Comments (5)

FlatLine

It's an idea, especially with the testing methods steadily improving and speeding up I could see it happening in the future. Technology is improving all the time, it took years to map the human genome, now it can be done in a month, in a few years you'll be able to do it in a day for $100. But having said that, the fact is that it wouldn't be in the best interests of HBO for anyone to be caught cheating - it means they lose money. Would they even reveal accurate results if someone was caught, or would they let the fight go on so they still make their projected revenue? Probably the latter. The network is interested in making money, a positive drug test would be like shooting themselves in the foot.

13y ago

RlCKY

They're all cheating; ok well maybe not all but I'd bet that most top level athletes in the world are taking something to enhance their performance at their sport. Whether it's legal substances, illegal and they know how to pass the tests. Not many athletes' triumphs are the result of hard work and passion anymore. Boxers just wanna win fights and get paid, they don't wanna prove who is the best. People playing team sports just want to stay healthy and collect checks, they don't care about winning championships.

13y ago

Ray

I think it's something that can be done by both the networks and promoters.

13y ago

DoktorSleepless

If they were to do something like that, they would have to coordinate with Showtime so both networks can do drug testing. If only HBO does it, all the cheaters will move to Showtime, which is probably a large portion, and HBO would be left with having to air a dozen Donaire fights each year. It wouldn't be fair for HBO to do it alone. This is the same problem with states adopting better testing. If Nevada suddenly starts doing more stringent testing, everyone will just fight somewhere else and Vegas will lose business.

13y ago

Fetta

Because Arum and Pac said no for years and HBO was not about to crap on one of their gooses. Now that Pac got KO'd everyone jumping on the testing train and maybe HBO feels that if they jump on it too it may seem a bit like favortism. Just my 2 cents off a whim cause never thought of it this way

13y ago