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There are times in sports when steroids are used for other means than cheating. Fighters have been known to use the drugs in order to overcome lingering injuries, or to speed up the recovery of an injury in the event that they have to fight on short notice and need to be able to train to fight. I'm not talking James Toney getting caught when he faced John Ruiz. Toney says he had a short window to get ready, and the juice was caught in his system. Fine. but he's a guy that's made his money and then some, so really has no excuse next to a guy who uses them because if he doesn't fight, his kids don't eat much that week.
Orlando Salido is still a young kid at 25, but has been int he game ten years. Nine losses on his record and a good few stoppages. He's beaten some decent names, and been beaten up by some decent, and some not so decent. His last loss before fighting Robert Guerrero on Saturday night was to Juan Manuel Marquez; absolutely no shame in that. Stylistically he is a decent fighter, doing nothing spectacular but respectable enough in most departments to give most fighters a good run.
He was an opponent for Guerrero's first title defense. The feeling going in was that Salido was solid and respectable, but should be ground down by the harder punching and supposedly sharper, and younger fighter. It was a rough fight that Guerrero was never fully able to impose himself upon. I'm not saying it was an impossibility for Salido to win, and when the scores were being read, I hoped he'd not fall foul of a bad decision against the more marketable fighter. The judges seemed to have gotten it right; though, now it's apparent that Salido was fighting under the influence of artificial enhancement.
I hate steroids in competitive sports. In bodybuilding or wrestling nobody gets hurt, ar at least in wrestling that is not the intention, though injuries do occur, but overall, you have to say that those individuals compete amongst one another and use the same substances and they don't have to worry about someone coming to rip their head off. I believe that steroids should be abolished from sports altogether. Major league baseball players don't take their lives in their hands every time they play, but if they are juiced up, what becomes of the statistics they achieve and the whole nature of the sport they play as opposed to the decades past when steroids weren't used?
To me, such situations make a mockery of what sport is supposed to be about. It robs the innocence from the little kid that grows up all his life dedicating himself to the sport he loves, only to reach a certain level and be faced with the dilemma that to be the best, or have competitive parity with his peers, he must introduce harmful chemicals into his body in order to enhance his physical capability. They say it's not cheating if everyone's doing it. I say if everyone's doing it, shame on everybody. these so-called athletes are taking a sport that instills discipline into young kids and perverting it because they don't have the dedication to push beyond their own limits and become that which they are by virtue of steroids.
Fighters have died in sparring. Especially in America, there's so much boxing shown on television that I can see where a degree of nonchalance would arise towards the actual risk undertaken by fighters. But make no mistake, every fight you see holds the potential for disaster. It's part of what makes fighters so unique amongst other sportsmen. A fighter's risk is unlike that in most other sports, and that it is not reflected in the money made available to fighters makes today's champions and contenders, journeymen and amateurs that much more worthy of praise.
Orlando Salido's career was not on a downturn. He was not favored to beat Guerrero, but when he did, it felt as if his victory was one of grit and determination against the odds against the style of a fighter with a marketing machine behind him. Of course, now we know different. if it can be proven that Salido's steroid use was malicious, which may be difficult as fighters incur myriad injuries that could be used to explain the steroid usage, he should be banned, fined, or whatever harsh punishment can be imposed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
A message needs to be sent that anyone using steroids in boxing will be punished severely. Though the fact that we've just seen Shannon Briggs, a fighter who wouldn't look out of place in the WWE crowned heavyweight champion, and a fanbase that wouldn't mind seeing Tommy Morrison come back despite the fact that he proudly based his entire career success on steroid use, is not encouraging.
Orlando Salido is still a young kid at 25, but has been int he game ten years. Nine losses on his record and a good few stoppages. He's beaten some decent names, and been beaten up by some decent, and some not so decent. His last loss before fighting Robert Guerrero on Saturday night was to Juan Manuel Marquez; absolutely no shame in that. Stylistically he is a decent fighter, doing nothing spectacular but respectable enough in most departments to give most fighters a good run.
He was an opponent for Guerrero's first title defense. The feeling going in was that Salido was solid and respectable, but should be ground down by the harder punching and supposedly sharper, and younger fighter. It was a rough fight that Guerrero was never fully able to impose himself upon. I'm not saying it was an impossibility for Salido to win, and when the scores were being read, I hoped he'd not fall foul of a bad decision against the more marketable fighter. The judges seemed to have gotten it right; though, now it's apparent that Salido was fighting under the influence of artificial enhancement.
I hate steroids in competitive sports. In bodybuilding or wrestling nobody gets hurt, ar at least in wrestling that is not the intention, though injuries do occur, but overall, you have to say that those individuals compete amongst one another and use the same substances and they don't have to worry about someone coming to rip their head off. I believe that steroids should be abolished from sports altogether. Major league baseball players don't take their lives in their hands every time they play, but if they are juiced up, what becomes of the statistics they achieve and the whole nature of the sport they play as opposed to the decades past when steroids weren't used?
To me, such situations make a mockery of what sport is supposed to be about. It robs the innocence from the little kid that grows up all his life dedicating himself to the sport he loves, only to reach a certain level and be faced with the dilemma that to be the best, or have competitive parity with his peers, he must introduce harmful chemicals into his body in order to enhance his physical capability. They say it's not cheating if everyone's doing it. I say if everyone's doing it, shame on everybody. these so-called athletes are taking a sport that instills discipline into young kids and perverting it because they don't have the dedication to push beyond their own limits and become that which they are by virtue of steroids.
Fighters have died in sparring. Especially in America, there's so much boxing shown on television that I can see where a degree of nonchalance would arise towards the actual risk undertaken by fighters. But make no mistake, every fight you see holds the potential for disaster. It's part of what makes fighters so unique amongst other sportsmen. A fighter's risk is unlike that in most other sports, and that it is not reflected in the money made available to fighters makes today's champions and contenders, journeymen and amateurs that much more worthy of praise.
Orlando Salido's career was not on a downturn. He was not favored to beat Guerrero, but when he did, it felt as if his victory was one of grit and determination against the odds against the style of a fighter with a marketing machine behind him. Of course, now we know different. if it can be proven that Salido's steroid use was malicious, which may be difficult as fighters incur myriad injuries that could be used to explain the steroid usage, he should be banned, fined, or whatever harsh punishment can be imposed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
A message needs to be sent that anyone using steroids in boxing will be punished severely. Though the fact that we've just seen Shannon Briggs, a fighter who wouldn't look out of place in the WWE crowned heavyweight champion, and a fanbase that wouldn't mind seeing Tommy Morrison come back despite the fact that he proudly based his entire career success on steroid use, is not encouraging.