by David P. Greisman

It began with a question about drug testing for a specific fight. Earlier in the week, BoxingScene.com’s Luis Sandoval had learned that Lamont Peterson’s bout against Lucas Matthysse would not have random drug testing conducted by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer was asked about this on May 17, the day before Peterson-Matthysse, in a conversation with David P. Greisman of BoxingScene.com and Tim Starks of Queensberry-Rules.com. Schaefer’s extended answer gave his perspective on whose responsibility he feels it should be when it comes to conducting more stringent drug testing for fights.

“I am not in the drug testing business,” Schaefer said. “I don’t want to be in it. It’s not my job. My job is to put fights together. It is unfortunate that fighters feel the need for extra drug testing. I hope that the authorities which do regulate boxing are hearing the fighters’ cry for additional drug testing. I think that it will be up to the commissions to take that up and implement drug testing where a fighter feels safe. That’s not up to the promoter.

“I support additional drug testing, but it cannot be the promoter’s responsibility,” he said. “We’re not a regulatory agency. We’re not in that business. We are a promoter, and a promoter promotes fights and puts fights together. A promoter does not regulate the sport and does not regulate the protocols for drug testing, and to be honest, they shouldn’t, because whether it’s me or Bob Arum or Lou DiBella or [Dan] Goossen, what the hell do we know about drug testing? We don’t know anything about it. We’re not experts in that.

“And those guys who do the drug testing, they don’t know sh*t about promoting. They don’t know how to put the fights together and promote the fights. So you want to have the guy who takes the blood and does the blood tests promote the fights? There are clearly lines of responsibility. And I don’t want to do somebody else’s job, because I’m not qualified.

“There’s some media guys — without mentioning names, but you guys all know who I’m talking about — who believe that they are experts. There is no media guy who is an expert in drug testing. Give me a break. They think that they are, but they’re not. Just because they write a 10-page story, confusing the sh*t out of everybody, they think they are experts, but they’re really not. Let the experts do their job. Everybody has clearly defined roles.”

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow David on Twitter @fightingwords2 or send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com