Roy Jones Jr. Failed for Andro...plus, 52 Pro fighters, boxers&MMA, fail tests in Cal

**Benny Leonard** · 03-13-2007, 12:43 AM

Here is the article:

Boxing does not escape the specter of steroidsBy Kieran Mulvaney
Special to ESPN.com

Tuesday afternoon's raid on a Florida pharmacy in connection with the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs has once again shone the spotlight on the issue of steroids and sports. News outlets reported a number of professional athletes as being among the customers of the pharmacy and of an Alabama company that, in a related move, was indicted by a grand jury the same day on su****ion of selling illegal drugs over the Internet. An attorney for Applied Pharmacy Services told Mobile's WALA-TV that federal authorities raided the company last August.

Holyfield

Among those mentioned in connection with the Alabama facility was former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield. However, Holyfield told ESPN.com on Wednesday that the only drugs he had ever bought from Alabama were heart medications for his recently deceased father. As for steroids, Holyfield asked rhetorically, "What is it gonna do for me to get on steroids? Enhance me to do what?"

AP Photo/Eric Jamison
Orlando Salido, right, defeated Robert Guerrero on the Nov. 4 Baldomir-Mayweather card.
It's rare that boxing is at the center of discussions of sports and steroids, but these developments come at a time when there is growing evidence that the reach of performance-enhancing substances extends between the ropes, and perhaps increasingly so.

Last week, a second sample confirmed that Mariano Carrera tested positive for the anabolic steroid clenbuterol following his World Boxing Association (WBA) junior middleweight title victory over Javier Castillejo in Berlin on Dec. 2. Just three days after that bout, the Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended Orlando Salido, who had outpointed Robert Guerrero to win the International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight belt in Las Vegas on Nov. 4, when his postfight urinalysis revealed the presence of another steroid, nandrolone. (Both Carrera and Salido were stripped of their titles following the tests.)

Nor are Carrera and Salido the first:

Botha

• Frans Botha of South Africa was stripped of the IBF heavyweight title belt he won against Axel Schulz in 1995 after testing positive for steroids, which he and his camp claimed had been prescribed for treatment of an arm injury.

Hall

Jones Jr.

• Roy Jones Jr. and Richard Hall both tested positive for the testosterone precursor androstenedione after Jones defeated Hall to retain his undisputed world light heavyweight championship in Indianapolis in 2000. Jones insisted his test was the result of ingesting the supplement Ripped Fuel.

Vargas
• Fernando Vargas was suspended for nine months and fined $100,000 for testing positive for the steroid stanozolol following his defeat by Oscar De La Hoya in September 2002. Vargas claimed the steroids were given to him without his knowledge, but he accepted full responsibility.

Toney
• James Toney's 2005 victory over WBA heavyweight titlist John Ruiz was changed to a no-contest after Toney tested positive for nandrolone. Toney claimed that the steroids were given to him by a doctor to treat an injured arm suffered during his previous bout, against Rydell Booker.

**Benny Leonard** · 03-13-2007, 12:43 AM

continued:

So is steroid use more widespread in boxing than has previously been acknowledged?

"I tend to think that it's a much bigger problem than we recognize. I think boxing for the most part has ignored it," said Dr. Margaret Goodman, chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada Athletic Commission. "And I don't think it's related to the positive drug tests that have been turning up lately. I think the problem with boxing is that because there is no federal oversight, commissions don't have to test, and they don't all have to test for the same things when they do test, so there's no standardization. And so more often than not, fighters aren't tested, and don't think they don't know it. And I think if you talk to boxers, I think steroids are readily available in many gyms all over the world."

The scandal that erupted around the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) suggested a world where big-name athletes spent tens of thousands of dollars on finely tuned drug regimes beyond the reach of mere mortals. However, said Richard Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), that's only part of the story.

"I think the problem with boxing is that because there is no federal oversight, commissions don't have to test, and they don't all have to test for the same things when they do test, so there's no standardization. And so more often than not, fighters aren't tested, and don't think they don't know it."
Dr. Margaret Goodman, chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada Athletic Commission
"The BALCO stuff, you could see the treatments there were $35,000 a year, which clearly favored those who could afford to do it. But there's so much of this stuff available, in gymnasiums and on street corners, that might not be as scientifically administered but is certainly available and consumed," he said.

Certainly, Pound continued, the notion that steroids cause their users only to bulk up -- and thus would be of minimal interest to boxers, who rely on speed, endurance and lean muscle -- is erroneous.

"Anything that increases muscle mass and strength would be of assistance in boxing," he observed. "And also just the recovery from training."

"The reason most fighters use anabolic steroids is not for the bulk," Goodman added. "It's not the big heavyweights that are testing positive, it's the smaller weights. And there's always been this misperception that they're used to put on bulk, whereas in reality they're used by athletes so they can train more. They reduce the time they have to take off if they have a small injury. The problem is that it's a double-edged sword, because steroid use chronically will lead to tendon injuries as well as a breakdown of the bones, making them more brittle."

"Anything that increases muscle mass and strength would be of assistance in boxing. And also just the recovery from training."
Richard Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
Throughout the world of sports, said Pound, those who are attempting to catch users of steroid-enhancing drugs are almost inevitably constantly a half-step behind the users and distributors.

"I think you have to expect that there will always be some who don't care what the rules are, and are prepared to take these short cuts, and in a sense they'll always be ahead, in that they're the ones who decide when they're going to do it and what they're going to use," he noted.

Added Mark Fainaru-Wada of the San Francisco Chronicle, co-author of the book "Game of Shadows," which exposed the inner workings of the BALCO case: "I always think the cheaters are going to be ahead of the testers, primarily because there's more money. The testers are always looking for money. So that's a huge issue. I think the cheaters will always be ahead.

"If we learned anything from BALCO, it's that these guys were very smart about testing and they knew how to beat it. There were masking agents, designer steroids, taking things that couldn't be tested for, like human growth hormone. There's just a wide range of ways to get around the process."

That's the case, said Fainaru-Wada, even in those sports that subject their participants to random, unannounced testing, which is demonstrably not the case in boxing. Not all commissions test for drugs, and the few that do focus almost exclusively on championship bouts; none tests boxers except on fight night.

"You don't take anabolic steroids or human growth hormone all the time. You take them in a certain cycle in which you build muscle, build strength, build reflexes, and then you stop the cycle. So, with correct knowledge, someone shouldn't get caught."
Flip Homansky, former ringside physician and Nevada state athletic commissioner
As a result, asserted Flip Homansky, former ringside physician and Nevada state athletic commissioner, only the fighters who "make mistakes" are caught.

"You don't take anabolic steroids or human growth hormone all the time," he pointed out. "You take them in a certain cycle in which you build muscle, build strength, build reflexes, and then you stop the cycle. So, with correct knowledge, someone shouldn't get caught."

Said Fainaru-Wada: "Knowledge is half the deal. If you know when you're going to be tested, that kind of defeats the purpose.

He added, "It does nothing to dissuade the notion of using. That was the joke about baseball for so long. Even when they announced, 'OK, we're going to start testing at spring training,' well, OK, everyone knew when they were going to be tested, so you just took until you knew it was going to be clear of your system, then you stopped, and then you started again. So the notion that it just has to be championship events and that that will somehow eliminate the use of these drugs, is naive. Even the kid who gets a handful of steroids under the table in Mexico should be fine, unless he's an idiot."

"Knowledge is half the deal. If you know when you're going to be tested, that kind of defeats the purpose."
Mark Fainaru-Wada, San Francisco Chronicle reporter and co-author of "Game of Shadows"
"The only way to catch people is not just to test them during competition, but to test them between competitions," said Homansky. "And if boxing wants to get serious, then when people apply for a license in a state, or when people sign for a fight -- let's say Oscar [De La Hoya] and Floyd [Mayweather Jr.]; they signed in December for a fight the next May -- the state where the fight is going to be could insist on part of the language in the contract stating that they can be tested at any time."

The experience of other sports suggests that even that kind of random, universal testing would not necessarily be enough to catch every user or stamp out steroid use.

"Look at the Olympic testing situation," said Fainaru-Wada. "They have year-round testing, unannounced, they have banned for life on your second positive, two-year ban on your first in track and field. That's a pretty substantial set of penalties." And yet, as repeated examples have shown, track athletes continue to test positive -- suggesting strongly that there are many more who are using performance-enhancing drugs who are still able to evade detection. During questioning by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in the wake of BALCO, said Fainaru-Wada, one track athlete told investigators that a field of eight elite female sprinters would include six who were juiced. A second sprinter disagreed. She said all eight would be users.

"You need to have the random testing as part of your arsenal," Pound said. "But the real future in the fight against drugs in sport is going to arise now that governments have adopted an international convention under UNESCO. And they're going to be able to use their investigative powers to go at the upstream side of things, the suppliers, and traffickers."

Nonetheless, before boxing can even begin to approach that stage, argue some, it at least needs to catch up to other sports in terms of testing.

ESPN.com's Mike Fish contributed to this report.

Kieran Mulvaney is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. He covers boxing for ESPN.com, Reuters and TigerBoxing.com.

**Benny Leonard** · 03-13-2007, 12:45 AM

Another interesting article:
For some boxers, test results can reveal surprisesBy Kieran Mulvaney
Special to ESPN.com

Positive drug tests concerning boxers, and indeed other athletes, don't always involve steroids.

Often, said Dr. Margaret Goodman, chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada Athletic Commission, "when I was working fights [as a ringside physician], we'd have a fighter fill out his pre-fight medical, and we'd ask them questions. Are you taking any prescription medicines? Are you taking any over-the-counter medicines? A large proportion of fighters would write down that they were taking Sudafed, or pseudoephedrine, and some amphetamines will break down to a by-product of that. If someone was saying that they were taking that when they were really taking amphetamines -- and I'm not saying that all these fighters were, but did every fighter have a cold going into a fight? Somehow, I can't imagine it. I always thought that was curious," she said.

Nino

Far more unusual, however, was the case of Omar Nino, who tested positive for methamphetamine, or crystal meth, following his draw with Brian Viloria in a WBC light flyweight bout in Las Vegas last November.

"It's strange, strange," reflected former ringside physician and Nevada commissioner Flip Homansky. "If that's indeed the case, it's the first case I've heard of."

"Amphetamines make sense to me, but methamphetamines don't because they have so many side effects, it would make it hard for a fighter to function," said Goodman.

Tyson

Similarly, when a boxer tests positive for marijuana -- as Mike Tyson did following his bout with Andrew Golota in 2000, or as former junior flyweight belt holder Will Grigsby did following his loss to Ulises Solis in January (or indeed, after winning a belt against Nelson Dieppa in July 2000) -- it seems more likely to be the result of an inability to say no, or a desire to relax as a fight approaches, than a belief it will improve performance. The more likely in-ring impact would be something along the lines of Grigsby's effort against Solis, during which he hardly threw a punch and retired on his stool after eight rounds.

Whitaker

At least within the context of trying to find that extra edge, it isn't completely surprising that some boxers might test positive for *******, given that it can not only provide a short-term boost of energy but also, by curbing appetite, lead to weight loss. For example, former lightweight and welterweight champ Pernell Whitaker's 1998 win over Andrei Pestraiev was changed to a no-contest when he tested positive for *******, although subsequent out-of-the-ring events showed that was more likely due to addiction issues than an attempt to gain an advantage inside the ropes.

If using ******* seems an extreme means of losing weight, diuretics would appear to be more understandable, although, says Homansky, they also are highly dangerous.

"Using diuretics is just horrible, because when you take a diuretic to lose water, to lose weight, you're losing all your metabolites, all your electrolytes, you're losing your salt, potassium, calcium, phosphorus," he said. "You're more prone to infections, you can't recover, your muscles don't work as well."

Mayorga

Ricardo Mayorga tested positive for the diuretic Lasix following his loss to Oscar De La Hoya last May. However, while in no way implicating Mayorga, Goodman points out that Lasix is not used for weight loss alone.

Diuretics, she says, "are really used as masking agents these days. When a fighter tests positive for Lasix, I can't tell you that he's using anabolic steroids. But, although you might say, 'These guys have to lose weight, I can see why they'd use Lasix,' Lasix is used more often these days as a masking agent."

Kieran Mulvaney is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. He covers boxing for ESPN.com, Reuters and TigerBoxing.com.

**Benny Leonard** · 03-13-2007, 12:46 AM

Here is the one about the 52 fighters that failed:

Not Found

http://www.pe.com/sports/boxing/stories/PE_Sports_Local_D_box_column_27.1dc1b49.html

California Fighting for Drug-Free Competition in Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts

12:11 AM PST on Tuesday, February 27, 2007

By DAVID A. AVILA
The Press-Enterprise

With mandatory drug and steroid testing poised to begin next month, a state official revealed that 52 professional boxers and mixed martial arts fighters, including Cesar Gracie, Hector Camacho Jr., Bas Rutten and Alfonso Gomez, failed drug tests last year.

"We've got some issues here," said Armando Garcia, the executive officer for the California State Athletic Commission. "You can't be doing drugs and competing in combative sports."

Most of the drug tests taken between March and December revealed rampant use of marijuana and some use of benzodiazepines, ******* and methamphetamines, according to Garcia. None are allowed for a professional prizefighter.

"It sort of mirrored our society," said Garcia, who was formerly with Florida's athletic commission before arriving in California more than a year ago. "We want a drug-free competition."

Drug testing had been conducted only during championship fights up until January 2006, when random testing was added to both boxing and MMA. Beginning next month, all prizefighters will be tested for steroids and drugs.

"There's enough adversity to overcome in our sport. This type of testing is good for boxing," said Dan Goossen, president of Goossen-Tutor Promotions.

Fines and Suspensions

Garcia said all fighters are notified within two weeks of their failed drug tests and are suspended six months and fined at most $2,500. None of the fighters notified appealed the suspension or the fines.

"If they don't pay the fine, they can't fight again," he said.

Now comes steroid testing. Garcia said a testing facility already has been selected -- the same company used by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which recently stripped Orlando Salido of his IBF featherweight crown following a positive drug test. The California State Athletic Commission plans to use the $26,000 in fines it's collected for testing.

To Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero, who reclaimed his IBF featherweight title this past weekend in Denmark after losing to Salido, there's a simple reason to be in favor of limiting the use of drugs and steroids.

"It's cheating," he said.

Though neither professional boxing nor MMA have a national commission to oversee their participants, there is a movement to bring both under one federal umbrella by Sen. John McCain's boxing reform act.

With the surge of MMA fights in California and with boxing enjoying an explosion throughout the state, the athletic commission is under pressure to keep the competition fair and safe.

California has more boxing shows than any other state. Last year there were more than 100 fight cards, with revenues of more than $3 million.

And with the legalization of MMA contests in January 2006, the state has been working diligently to appoint more judges, referees and physicians to cover the increased events.

In the very first major MMA show last March, Gracie fought Frank Shamrock before an estimated 17,000 people at the HP Pavilion and was promptly knocked out in the first round. His urine sample revealed particles of marijuana in his system, according to the findings released by Garcia.

Last July, Rutten, a well-known MMA fighter out of Holland, beat Ruben Villareal in a WFA bout that took place at the Forum in Inglewood. He won by knockout but tested positive for morphine and diphenhydramine, which is commonly found in Benadryl.

Many professional boxers, ranging from four-round rookies to 10-round main-event fighters, failed drug tests throughout the year.

Camacho, the son of former world champ Hector "Macho" Camacho, fought George Klinesmith last September in a middleweight bout scheduled for eight rounds. Both tested positive for marijuana.

Gomez, of "The Contender" reality show fame, met Carson Jones on Aug. 25 in an eight-round junior middleweight bout in Sacramento. Gomez won a tight contest but seemed sluggish. Both he and Jones later failed drug tests.

Dr. Enrique Gonzalez, who's provided tests for boxers, said marijuana does not provide stimulation but does have a calming effect. That can be dangerous for fighters because their senses can be dampened. Combative sports like boxing and MMA rely on quickness and reflexes. He said methamphetamines such as speed provide a boost or a hindrance to a user.

"It can be an enhancer for a person that uses it in the ring," said Gonzalez, whose practice is located in East Los Angeles. "But if a person uses it too much, then it can hurt them."

Much Work to be Done

A spokeswoman from the governor's office said Friday that a new commission has not been determined and no date has been set to disclose the new members. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must appoint five new members, and the state Senate must choose one.

In the meantime, Garcia tends to other issues that must be addressed, such as MMA ring designs, appointment of fight officials and promoter and matchmaker problems.

**totalstranga** · 03-13-2007, 04:03 AM

I knew it! give Toney back his belt!

**Addison** · 03-13-2007, 04:09 AM

I sped read it all.

My eyes hurt.

Seriously, paraphrase some. It's your brilliance we want Benny.

What are you saying about this steriod stuff?

Apparently it doesn't have very positive affects after the initial use.

Aside from an alleged increase in girth. Canseco's wife killed trees on that.

**Knicksman20** · 03-13-2007, 09:10 AM

The articles are basically saying that you don't have to necessarily be taking steroids to bulk up or gain muscle mass. They can be used for recovery from training & also for that extra boost of energy. It goes to show that steroids are ALOT more prevalent in boxing than we really think because if these athletes are smart, they juice in cycles. If they did that then they probably won't get caught & their health wouldn't suffer as much.

**Welter_Skelter** · 03-13-2007, 09:16 AM

Thye are ALL a bunch of ****ing cheaters.. ACCEPT it already

Roy Jones Jr. Failed for Andro...plus, 52 Pro fighters, boxers&MMA, fail tests in Cal