Comments Thread For: “Fighting Words” – When A Former Steroid Distributor Works With Boxers

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

by David P. Greisman - Here is a man whose rise coincided with the rise of others: Victor Conte, a nutrition guru with a superlative cast to use for his client testimonials. He made his name by making athletes stars and by taking those who were already stars and delivering them to superstardom.

His fall, then, brought the fall of his clients, their reputations forever besmirched because they received steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs from Conte. The most noteworthy: Barry Bonds, the home run king whose accomplishments will forever by accompanied by asterisks; and Marion Jones, the Olympic gold medalist sprinter who was stripped of her awards and who spent time in prison.

Conte also spent time behind bars. Now he is back to working with athletes, a nutrition guru once again building a cast of clients, including a few noteworthy boxers.

They know who Conte was and vouch for what they say he is now – someone who has reformed his ways and deserves a second chance, a chance that will help them get to the next level.

They know what people will think, that people will question their association with Conte, that people will speculate about what Conte is doing with this second chance, and that people will be su****ious of what these athletes are doing through their affiliation with him. [Click Here To Read More]

[Random1]

Great read as usual David, but I'm sorry to see you leave NE. It was cool knowing that one of my favorite writers was less than an hour away.

[Tomasio]

Margarito is so full of ****, he has changed his story plenty of times.. 1st he said that there's was no illegal pads in his wraps & that it was all bull****, then he insinuated that he & Capetillo(his trainer) had been set up cause when Mosleys crew came to where he was getting his hands wrapped, when they told Capetillo to unwrap his hands & the pads fell out Mosleys trainer(****m Richardson) immediately took the pads & past them from person to person & the commissioner took the pads that were handed to him by Mosleys crew & sealed it in a box & Margarito said he didn't know if those were the pads Capetillo had in his wraps(yet Capetillo had already admitted to his wrong doing) Now comes the WEIRD PART, Now Margarito says that this WAS THE ONLY TIME CAPETILLO HAD PUT THOSE ILLEGAL PADS IN HIS WRAPS & he didn't know that Capetillo had put those illegal pads in his wraps cause HE COULDN'T TELL THE DEFERENCE from other times when his hands were wrapped..If Margarito COULDN'T TELL THE DEFERENCE between ILLEGAL PADS & LEGAL PADS then ¿HOW DOES HE KNOW & HOW IS HE SO SURE THAT THIS WAS THE ONLY TIME CAPETILLO DID THIS? If he couldn't tell the deference, then he didn't know...After that incident Mexican fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez & Marco Antonio Barrera said that Margarito was a liar cause they could tell what's being put in their wraps & if it's something that has never been put there before, ESPECIALLY a plaster like substance they said that YOU COULD IMMEDIATELY TELL THE DEFERENCE!!! Plain & simple, Margarito is A CHEATING BAG OF **** THAT SHOULD BE BANNED FOR LIFE!!

[komandante]

Teddy Atlas is a liar, he thinks spam email is genuine.

[NinjaMan!]

by David P. Greisman - Here is a man whose rise coincided with the rise of others: Victor Conte, a nutrition guru with a superlative cast to use for his client testimonials. He made his name by making athletes stars and by taking those who were already stars and delivering them to superstardom.

His fall, then, brought the fall of his clients, their reputations forever besmirched because they received steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs from Conte. The most noteworthy: Barry Bonds, the home run king whose accomplishments will forever by accompanied by asterisks; and Marion Jones, the Olympic gold medalist sprinter who was stripped of her awards and who spent time in prison.

Conte also spent time behind bars. Now he is back to working with athletes, a nutrition guru once again building a cast of clients, including a few noteworthy boxers.

They know who Conte was and vouch for what they say he is now – someone who has reformed his ways and deserves a second chance, a chance that will help them get to the next level.

They know what people will think, that people will question their association with Conte, that people will speculate about what Conte is doing with this second chance, and that people will be su****ious of what these athletes are doing through their affiliation with him. [Click Here To Read More]

Alex Ariza was part of that steroid crew!

[KO-chulito]

Man, how did you forgot Khaosai "The Thai Tyson" Galaxy, Super Flyweight Champion.

[MindBat]

People will draw further conclusions based on the outcome of the lawsuit he supposedly has against the CSAC. If he wins the suit based on insufficient evidence or some other reason, he has a chance to vindicate himself in the public eye.

Next, will be proving he still has what it takes to remain a top contender and command the big paydays. Then, he has to prove that the loss to Mosley was a fluke.

If he can pass those tests with flying colors, he can redeem himself and is owed an apology.

He's got a bit of a challenge still ahead.

[BattlingNelson]

First of all. Conte is an ex-con who has no business working with top athletes so early after his release. Let him work some community service instead.

Now it isn't like that and Conte has gone straight back to creating a big business with supplements allegedly on the right side of the law.

How can a guy who has been known to sell his soul for dough suddenly be trusted just like that?

How can you not be su****ious about an ex-con who overtly tells anybody who wants to listen, that he can beat the system still?

How can any professional ahtlete work with such a guy and still maintain his/her integrity?

From the article:

“If there are clean athletes out there, it’s the ones working with me,” Conte told Kim of MaxBoxing.com. “Because they will, in fact, be target-tested.”

Question: How many times has any of his athletes been 'target-tested' because of their relationship with Conte? The ex-BALCO chief owes an answer.

Greisman's take on Conte:

It is fair for Conte to seek a second chance. It is just as fair for those cautious of Conte to see the news of him working with athletes again and to give this former steroid distributor a closer, second glance.

Really? He shouldn't be working with topatheletes at all. At least not yet. Let him show the world that he can stay on the right side by doing some community service and/or help the athletic commisions establish some bullit-proof testing procedures.


Today we know that Conte can beat any testing scheme out there. We know because he has said so. Does anybody believe that he's unwilling to share his knowledge in exchange for cash today when we know that that was in essense what he did at BALCO?

[Mr. David]

Random,

Thanks for the very kind words. Where in New England are you? -- I'm leaving New England, yes, but I love it enough that I'm looking to return for visits when I can. On tap: UFC 118 in Boston.

[Mr. David]

Bat,

You raise an interesting argument. My points of agreement in some spots and counterpoints in others:

You say Conte shouldn't be doing this kind of work so early after his release from jail. A quick reminder that Conte's been out from behind bars since the end of March 2006.

Maybe it's just a more American philosophy, but there's the cliche here of "He did the crime. He served his time." And while there are often orders for the duration of probation -- stay away from this person, enter this program -- I imagine that period is over.

Now in baseball, you can have the league or teams banning people from the clubhouse, effectively shutting them out from access to team members -- at least in an officially sanctioned environment. They cannot ban, say, a personal trainer with illicit connections from doing outside work with a team member. Hence why Conte's working with baseball players now, too.

Boxing doesn't have an overall commission, as we well know. Nor does it have a clubhouse.

I brought up the ZMA and pseudoscience thing for a reason. I also had a reason for bringing up that the SNAC website still has all these athletes who were dirty listed on it. It's that we don't know whether Conte's return is basically yet again using pseudoscience for fighters who want to believe that what they're doing will help, or if this is a case of an old, wily dog going back to his illegal tricks.

You ask this:

How can any professional ahtlete work with such a guy and still maintain his/her integrity?

And that's a great line. I hope I carried that thought through in the piece.

As you noted, I said:

It is just as fair for those cautious of Conte to see the news of him working with athletes again and to give this former steroid distributor a closer, second glance.

This whole arrangement makes me uncomfortable, too. I hope I was able to impart that discomfort.