By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is defending his fighter former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. after Chavez Jr. tested positive for marijuana for his loss to Sergio Martinez on September 15th of this year. Arum doesn’t see Chavez Jr. testing positive for Marijuana as being a big deal, because it’s not considered a performance enhancing drug.

Speaking with Fighthubtv.com, Arum said “I’m not gonna condemn a kid for smoking a joint a month before a fight to go to sleep…Cheating…performance enhancing drugs..that’s cheating. That’s wrong.”

There are a lot of boxing fans who are in agreement with Arum about this stance. Marijuana is definitely not a drug that would give Chavez Jr. any advantage against anyone he faces in the ring. If anything, it would hurt him by messing with his stamina if he smoked it. It could also make it harder for him to make weight if he were to get the munchies and overeat while using the drug.

However, the fact remains that it’s one of the banned drugs by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and it’s against the rules for fighters to be using this drug. If the Commission were to ignore their own rules it would make a mockery of the whole process.

Arum obviously is hoping that Chavez Jr. receives just a small slap on the hands by the Nevada Commission in terms of a fine and possible suspension, and Arum may get his way. But it looks bad for the sport for world title holders to be caught using drugs, even lower level drugs like marijuana.

This is the first offense for Chavez Jr., so it’s possible he’ll get off relatively light by the Commission when it comes time for them to penalize him with a suspension and fine. However, it looks bad when a fighter is breaking the rules, especially a fighter like Chavez Jr. who has already been caught using diuretics in the past three years ago.

Diuretics is a water weight losing drug that some fighters use to lose water in order to make weight for divisions that they couldn’t normally fight in without tons of exercise and dieting.

Boxing needs to be a clean sport, which is why it’s not good when you see a fighter using any kind of banned drug.