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Olympic guru: Blood AND urine testing must for Mayweather-Pacquiao
Michael Marley
Not to come off as any kind of bleeding heart but this random testing controversy between demanding Floyd Mayweather Jr. and so far refusing Manny Pacquiao may soon become academic.
Whether or not Pacman accedes to Mayweather’s stand for Olympic-style testing of both blood and urine, it’s coming to boxing and coming soon.
I spoke at length with the key medical figure involved in the constant refinement and upgrading of drug testing in the Olympics, UCLA Professor Emeritus Dr. Donald Catlin and he said, contrary to an article he published back in 2003, that BOTH random checks of urine and blood are imperative to keep athletes, in this case boxers, honest.
“This kind of testing must be done,” Dr. Catlin said, “so the public can be sure, relatively sure, that the boxers are clean.
See reporter Jill Lieber Steeg's superb March 4, 2007, USA Today profile of Dr. Catlin.
“It may seem tough to some but we’ve got keep raising the bar, hoping they (cheaters and their helpers) make mistakes. We have to make life miserable for them and that is what random testing can do, what it is doing. We have to keep closing the window of time when they can cheat and get away with it.”
First, let me make a point about the Good Doctor.
(See how Olympic drug crackdown shook up the August, 2008, Beijing Games.)
He is not, other than a longtime volunteer association with Don Jose Sulaiman and the World Boxing Council, any kind of boxing insider. He wasn’t really sure who either Bob Arum or admitted steroid user Sugar Shane Mosley were when I mentioned their names as he spoke from his home in California.
Second, the doctor found it kind of amazing when I informed him that former BALCO ringleader Victor Conte, the guy who handed Mosley his cheater drugs and his doping calendar before Shane’s second bout against Oscar de la Hoya, is working with some boxers today.
“Really, Victor Conte?” Dr. Catlin said. “He used to be the bad guy, he got caught and now I guess he’s supposed to be one of the good guys. I was deeply involved in the Barry Bonds case and in all the BALCO situations. We worked for years before we caught Conte.”
I asked the distinguished physician and professor what type of illegal drugs might be most likely to tempt professional boxers.
“Well, with Human Growth Hormone, the smaller guys might be less into that than the bigger fighters, the heavyweights. But we can’t be sure about any fighters using HGH, EPO and steroids without the blood and urine testing done at random times.”
EPO is the drug that most people either accuse Pacman of using or whisper that he is using, the most likely drug enabling him to rise from a scrawny 106-pounder to the welterweight who has been knocking out foes weighing 160 pounds.
Dr. Catlin sees the current Nevada State Athletic Commission drug testing protocol as inefficient and not up to date in terms of detection.
But he’s not a critic of the Nevada boxing board, in fact, he would be willing to work with the NSAC to strengthen its testing protocol.
“We’re getting better at this but did you know that, in the last 30 years, nobody has been caught using HGH because there is not a good enough test as of yet. You can stop using HGH for one day, just one day, and you can be clean in any test. They can use EPO one day and then it can be gone by noontime the next day. All the drugs are different, all have different windows (for detection). All we can do is to keep upping the ante, making the tests more random and stronger.
“I think the present situation is bad for boxing in the public relations sense because I think fairness is so vitally important. But absolutely I would love to help Nevada, I would love to sit down and talk about what they’re testing for how and how they’re testing,” Dr. Catlin said.
“I am not saying we’ve got the Olympics all cleaned up, not by any means. But we are getting there.”
Mayweather, Pacquiao and all the rest had better get used to getting that needle jab because it sounds like random blood and urine testing is the wave of the future in boxing just as it already is in the Olympic Games.
Michael Marley
Not to come off as any kind of bleeding heart but this random testing controversy between demanding Floyd Mayweather Jr. and so far refusing Manny Pacquiao may soon become academic.
Whether or not Pacman accedes to Mayweather’s stand for Olympic-style testing of both blood and urine, it’s coming to boxing and coming soon.
I spoke at length with the key medical figure involved in the constant refinement and upgrading of drug testing in the Olympics, UCLA Professor Emeritus Dr. Donald Catlin and he said, contrary to an article he published back in 2003, that BOTH random checks of urine and blood are imperative to keep athletes, in this case boxers, honest.
“This kind of testing must be done,” Dr. Catlin said, “so the public can be sure, relatively sure, that the boxers are clean.
See reporter Jill Lieber Steeg's superb March 4, 2007, USA Today profile of Dr. Catlin.
“It may seem tough to some but we’ve got keep raising the bar, hoping they (cheaters and their helpers) make mistakes. We have to make life miserable for them and that is what random testing can do, what it is doing. We have to keep closing the window of time when they can cheat and get away with it.”
First, let me make a point about the Good Doctor.
(See how Olympic drug crackdown shook up the August, 2008, Beijing Games.)
He is not, other than a longtime volunteer association with Don Jose Sulaiman and the World Boxing Council, any kind of boxing insider. He wasn’t really sure who either Bob Arum or admitted steroid user Sugar Shane Mosley were when I mentioned their names as he spoke from his home in California.
Second, the doctor found it kind of amazing when I informed him that former BALCO ringleader Victor Conte, the guy who handed Mosley his cheater drugs and his doping calendar before Shane’s second bout against Oscar de la Hoya, is working with some boxers today.
“Really, Victor Conte?” Dr. Catlin said. “He used to be the bad guy, he got caught and now I guess he’s supposed to be one of the good guys. I was deeply involved in the Barry Bonds case and in all the BALCO situations. We worked for years before we caught Conte.”
I asked the distinguished physician and professor what type of illegal drugs might be most likely to tempt professional boxers.
“Well, with Human Growth Hormone, the smaller guys might be less into that than the bigger fighters, the heavyweights. But we can’t be sure about any fighters using HGH, EPO and steroids without the blood and urine testing done at random times.”
EPO is the drug that most people either accuse Pacman of using or whisper that he is using, the most likely drug enabling him to rise from a scrawny 106-pounder to the welterweight who has been knocking out foes weighing 160 pounds.
Dr. Catlin sees the current Nevada State Athletic Commission drug testing protocol as inefficient and not up to date in terms of detection.
But he’s not a critic of the Nevada boxing board, in fact, he would be willing to work with the NSAC to strengthen its testing protocol.
“We’re getting better at this but did you know that, in the last 30 years, nobody has been caught using HGH because there is not a good enough test as of yet. You can stop using HGH for one day, just one day, and you can be clean in any test. They can use EPO one day and then it can be gone by noontime the next day. All the drugs are different, all have different windows (for detection). All we can do is to keep upping the ante, making the tests more random and stronger.
“I think the present situation is bad for boxing in the public relations sense because I think fairness is so vitally important. But absolutely I would love to help Nevada, I would love to sit down and talk about what they’re testing for how and how they’re testing,” Dr. Catlin said.
“I am not saying we’ve got the Olympics all cleaned up, not by any means. But we are getting there.”
Mayweather, Pacquiao and all the rest had better get used to getting that needle jab because it sounds like random blood and urine testing is the wave of the future in boxing just as it already is in the Olympic Games.
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