By Gerardo Granados: Not only in professional Boxing but in all professional or amateur sports this has been occurring and it is not enough reason to look the other way and wait until some one do something to solve it. We all know that an athlete will reach his peak and then his physical performance will decline due to his age, injuries or due the high work rate of competition and will naturally diminish his physical ability.
We also know that performance enhancement drugs can help to improve your performance; you don’t need to be a professional sports player to know that there are some supplements that will help you to add extra pounds on that bench press or to get bigger in a shorter period of time.
There are anabolic steroids (medicines: androstenedione, ephedrine, stanozolol and nandrolone just to mention a few) for humans and even for animal use, human growth hormone (HGH, somatrotopine), and design laboratories drugs (tetrahydrogestrinone – THG) that have been used to improve the performance of athletes, but even some food supplements are banned; the hyperbaric chambers could be considered as a non natural way to increase your performance in some cases.
The use of performance enhancement drugs gives an illicit advantage to the user, it is shameful and disgraceful, and in some cases it could be even a coward attitude to take that illicit edge on your opponent.
Some argue that PEDS wont give you the skills but they do will give you extra strength, stamina, resistance, speed and power, so if I am a fighter who has average boxing skills I might be able to improve my physique so much that I could end up beating guys who are better naturally gifted than me and even also the ones who are more skilled than me.
There are medical symptoms related to the abuse of steroids and also are different criteria in the tests used to detect his use by the different sports leagues or sports disciplines, urine or blood test are the most common, but there is no doubt that confessed users have been successful cheating different tests by long periods of time no matter which was the test that they took.
What about the obvious signs of its use? If I am forty years old and have not exercise my self in over five years, then I am not expected to be able to get back in top shape in just a couple of months of training, but if I use supplements or even get extra help from banned substances I might be able to reach my goal, and the results might look suspicious.
If a boxer who starts to show signs of aging or have showed to start diminishing his physical abilities just for the sudden looks incredibly dominant in his next fight defeating a younger lion who was the huge favorite we all might think that he won because of his vast experience and because he really did a good preparation for that fight. But what if he keeps on improving? If instead of showing signs of deterioration he looks even better than when he was a youngster? Now he looks stronger and faster, and his power is even better, is this fighter a freak of nature? Or is this a sign that will make some suspect he is cheating?
Money could be a factor too; a multi million dollar purse might be able to tempt some fighters to cheat.
Marion Jones was never detected by test during his prime but she confessed to have used PEDS, others athletes had admitted to have used them in the past, so professional boxing can not be the exception.
The Evan Fields issue, Shane Mosley, James Toney, Roy Jones Jr., Fernando Vargas, does this names rings a bell? Just to name a few that might be examples of the reason of why boxing fans are talking about the performance enhancement drugs use nowadays. Some fans wonder if a certain boxer use PEDS, others fans accuse a boxer without any prove, on times fighters are defamed but no one has the certitude to affirm or to deny the use, and less to prove it and that motivates a rumor to spread.
Is it possible that a boxer can be born with outstanding physical attributes that puts him above the majority of his peers, there are some great fighters that have been gifted by nature with amazing endurance, strength, stamina, power, speed or an iron chin, others have a special charisma and magnetic personality; is it possible to doubt any great fighter that might come in the near future and think that his remarkable performance is the result of use of PEDS?
What are boxing organizations doing about this? They must be aware of this situation and measures might have been taken in the past but is it necessary to take forward actions to prevent the use of PEDS and to protect the boxers that fight clean? Professional boxing is a business and a sport, but it is different to other professional sports such as body building, base ball or tennis because those are not contact sports and its goal is not to defeat his opponent by using fighting techniques. Lets say that a marathon runner use PEDS he will cheat by doing so and also will become a crook but he wont risk the life of his opponents by doing it; in amateur or professional boxing if a contender use PEDS he will put in risk the health and life of his opponent, he will not be considered only as a cheater but also could become a murdered. And if the Boxing organizations don’t do anything to avoid this, they could be considered as accomplishes too for allowing those boxers to be able to cheat the test of control of use of PEDS.
Does boxing need more effective and strict methods to detect the use of PEDS? I believe the logical answer is yes, because the men and women that climb in to the ring to fight are risking his health and life, and they deserve by all means necessary to be protected from those who treacherously cheat by using this banned substances. This duty might be shared with the prize fighters, sports journalist and boxing fans because it is them who can demand that the boxing organizations improve their test to avoid any unnecessary risk on the health or life of the clean fighters.
Perhaps this issue wont go away by its own and might get bigger in a short lapse of time although the fact that it is been talked around will contribute to actions be taken to fix this problem once and for all.
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