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IS EVAN FIELDS THE REAL DEAL?
Speculation has run rampant for over a decade now about Evander Holyfield and alleged steroid use. In early-March, Sports Illustrated reporters Luis Fernando and L.Jon Wertheim dug up information possibly linking the former world champion to Applead Pharmacy Services, which was alleged to be at the hub of an illegal steroid distribution network that included pro athletes as clients.
On August 29, 2006, Drug Enforcement Administration agents converged on Applied Pharmacy Services in Mobile, Alabama, Seizing client records that revealed the names of over 20 atheletes from various sports who allegedly received drugs from applied. Applied is considered a compounding pharmacy, which means it makes its own drugs generically.
Among the names on the list were baseball players Gary Matthews Jr., Jerry Hairston Jr., and David Bell, former baseball player Jose Canseco, an admitted steroid user, pro wrestling star and 1996 Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medalist Kurt Angle, and someone named "Evan Fields."
Investigators found that Fields had both the same birth date and home address as Holyfield. Sports Illustrated followed with a call to Fields - and Holyfield answered the phone.
Files also showed that the patient named Fields picked up three vials of testosterone from a doctor in Columbus, Georgia, traced through Applied. Testosterone, a male steroid hormone, can be used to remedy hypogonadism, a medical reproductive system and a condition Holyfield said he had. Files als said Holyfield obtained five vails of Saizen, a human growth hormone (HGH).
Holyfield has maintained throughout his career that he has never used steroids or any other chemical enhancement. Holyfield has never tested positive. His explanation for the link with Applied was to purchase medication for his father, who died of a heart ailment in January.
Holyfield released a statement, saying: "I do not use steroids. I have never used steroids. I resent that my name has been linked to known steroid users by sourses who refuse to be identified in order to generate publicity for their investigation."
Boxing has been rife with steroid use. James Toney and Fernando Vargas both tested positive for steroids after title fights. Frans Botha was stripped of the IBF heavyweight he won against Axel Schulz in 1995 after testing positive for steroids, which he and his camp claimed had been used to treat an arm injury, while Tommy Morrison has openly admitted he used steroids during the 1990s.
Roy Jones and Richard Hall both tested positive for androstenedione, or Andro, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned in 2004 saying it contained properties similar to steroids, after Jones defeated Hall to retain the world light heavyweight championship, in Indianapolis, Indiana, in May 2000. Jones, like Holyfield, insisted he's never used steroids, instead blaming the positive result on ingesting Ripped Fuel.
Most recently, Mariano Carrera tested positive for the steroid Clenbuterol after beating Javier Castillejo for the WBA junior middleweight title on December 2, 2006, in Berlin, Germany. Three days later, the Nevada State Commission suspended Orlando Salido, who beat Robert Guerrero to win the IBF featherweight strap, in Las Vegas on November 4, after his urinalysis revealed the steroid nandrolone.
"I tend to think that it's a much bigger problem than we recognize," said Dr. Margaret Goodman, former chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada Athletic Commission. "I think boxing for the most part has ignored it." - Joe Santoliquito
(c) Ring Mag. 2007
Hmmmmm..........................Makes you think doesn't it?
Speculation has run rampant for over a decade now about Evander Holyfield and alleged steroid use. In early-March, Sports Illustrated reporters Luis Fernando and L.Jon Wertheim dug up information possibly linking the former world champion to Applead Pharmacy Services, which was alleged to be at the hub of an illegal steroid distribution network that included pro athletes as clients.
On August 29, 2006, Drug Enforcement Administration agents converged on Applied Pharmacy Services in Mobile, Alabama, Seizing client records that revealed the names of over 20 atheletes from various sports who allegedly received drugs from applied. Applied is considered a compounding pharmacy, which means it makes its own drugs generically.
Among the names on the list were baseball players Gary Matthews Jr., Jerry Hairston Jr., and David Bell, former baseball player Jose Canseco, an admitted steroid user, pro wrestling star and 1996 Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medalist Kurt Angle, and someone named "Evan Fields."
Investigators found that Fields had both the same birth date and home address as Holyfield. Sports Illustrated followed with a call to Fields - and Holyfield answered the phone.
Files also showed that the patient named Fields picked up three vials of testosterone from a doctor in Columbus, Georgia, traced through Applied. Testosterone, a male steroid hormone, can be used to remedy hypogonadism, a medical reproductive system and a condition Holyfield said he had. Files als said Holyfield obtained five vails of Saizen, a human growth hormone (HGH).
Holyfield has maintained throughout his career that he has never used steroids or any other chemical enhancement. Holyfield has never tested positive. His explanation for the link with Applied was to purchase medication for his father, who died of a heart ailment in January.
Holyfield released a statement, saying: "I do not use steroids. I have never used steroids. I resent that my name has been linked to known steroid users by sourses who refuse to be identified in order to generate publicity for their investigation."
Boxing has been rife with steroid use. James Toney and Fernando Vargas both tested positive for steroids after title fights. Frans Botha was stripped of the IBF heavyweight he won against Axel Schulz in 1995 after testing positive for steroids, which he and his camp claimed had been used to treat an arm injury, while Tommy Morrison has openly admitted he used steroids during the 1990s.
Roy Jones and Richard Hall both tested positive for androstenedione, or Andro, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned in 2004 saying it contained properties similar to steroids, after Jones defeated Hall to retain the world light heavyweight championship, in Indianapolis, Indiana, in May 2000. Jones, like Holyfield, insisted he's never used steroids, instead blaming the positive result on ingesting Ripped Fuel.
Most recently, Mariano Carrera tested positive for the steroid Clenbuterol after beating Javier Castillejo for the WBA junior middleweight title on December 2, 2006, in Berlin, Germany. Three days later, the Nevada State Commission suspended Orlando Salido, who beat Robert Guerrero to win the IBF featherweight strap, in Las Vegas on November 4, after his urinalysis revealed the steroid nandrolone.
"I tend to think that it's a much bigger problem than we recognize," said Dr. Margaret Goodman, former chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada Athletic Commission. "I think boxing for the most part has ignored it." - Joe Santoliquito
(c) Ring Mag. 2007
Hmmmmm..........................Makes you think doesn't it?
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