Should opponents be notified about atypical PED findings below threshold?

[Robbie Barrett]

It will damge a fighter's reputation if low levels of PED's are found in his system and disclosed to his opponent? Is safety not paramount especially with the recent deaths attributed to the sport?

Such low levels give no advantage at all. So the safety argument is BS. No reason to damage an innocent persons reputation from microsamples absorbed from food. Which is why WADA upped the threshold.

[Citizen Koba]

I don’t recall what Whyte had in his system. But just a couple days away from the fight.. I mean cmon... that’s that old school James Toney or RJJ pre fight testing years... . Old habits die hard.

But regarding Clen in particular...I remember seeing a video where Angel Garcia said they didn’t care and Danny wanted the fight. I mean did the Garcia’s know or were consulted to not worry about Clen? If the Garcia’s acknowledged that it was specifically used so that Morales could make weight and ensure the fight, then I don’t see why Loeffler and Abel made a big deal about Canelo 78 days away for even having lower traces than Morales or Vargas.

But we all know why! Diss the Mexican green strap while being a Mexican boxing star, and see what happens to you, especially when you’re not paying fees or insisting in rankings!

All we're talking about is giving guys the information to make an informed choice. I imagine in most cases they would want the fight to proceed, but they should have the choice I think.

Honestly with Clenbuterol - as with many drugs on the banned list - it's really difficult to tell how much advantage they really give in a sport with as many dependant factors as boxing, maybe it's very little - or maybe an opponent will think that it's very little - but either way I think the principle stands that they should be able to make an informed choice.

Where it becomes problematic is if opponents then seek to leverage the information to renegotiate terms and so on... some thought should probably go in to how such situations shoulds be dealt with.

[Citizen Koba]

Such low levels give no advantage at all. So the safety argument is BS. No reason to damage an innocent persons reputation from microsamples absorbed from food. Which is why WADA upped the threshold.

The problem is you can't tell whether it's from food or PED abuse. What WADA did was to set the threshold at a level above which food contamination was not even a realistic possibility, but findings below that level do not indicate that Clenbuterol wasn't used as a PED. ie above threshold = cheating but below threshold does not equal not cheating. They've made the call that protecting athletes from being falsely accused of cheating is more important than ensuring a level playing field and in the vast majority of sports I'd have to agree with 'em.


Problem is with Clen that unlike many other drugs there's no method of telling when it entered the body so you can't tell how much has already been eliminated by the time of the test... in short you can't know with present methods whether they cheated or not, all you can do is establish whether food contamination is a reasonable possibility also.

That said, this isn't particularly about Clenbuterol, but any drug where there's a reasonable degree of uncertainty over whether there may have been an advantage gained.

[Citizen Koba]

Just gonna bump this one again cos I'm genuinely interested in what people think on this one. try and get some more opinions in.

[Eff Pandas]

100%. Boxers, promoters, managers & the state commission involved in that specific fight all should be cc'd with any PED hit on a fight card.

[Claude Palle]

Such low levels give no advantage at all. So the safety argument is BS. No reason to damage an innocent persons reputation from microsamples absorbed from food. Which is why WADA upped the threshold.

Absorbed from food? Lol. You sound like Victor Conte from BALCO. PED's are a huge advantage. The levels are irrelevant. It all depends on when the individual was tested. If an athlete cycles on steroids and then is tested after the cycle then the levels will be low. That sure does not mean that there is no advantage.

[elfag]

what is the point of having a threshold if you are going to treat below threshold as a positive result?

[Thaim]

When a guy tests positive the fight should be cancelled and the cheat should pay the other fighters training expences.

[BLASTER1]

If its below a threshold then no action should be taken.
Whats the point of a threshold if you still get vilified even when your under the threshold.

[bballchump11]

It's tricky because some fighters do legitimately get contaminated products/food that isn't their fault. It seems crappy that they get punished despite them being innocent.

But I put myself in the shoes of the opponent and realized that I'd want full disclosure in what I'm getting myself into. Boxing is a dangerous enough sport, and I'd be pissed if I found out my opponent had any trace of a banned substance in his system after the fact.

The opponent can still agree to go on with the fight, but it should their decision to do so. The decision shouldn't be made for them.