By Eric Thomas: Oscar De La Hoya, promoter for Golden Boy Promotions, is reporting that negotiations between World Boxing Association welterweight champion Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather for their May bout are “not too far away” to being wrapped up, according to Lance Pugmire of The Los Angeles Times. This is good news because there has been no word about the progress of the fight for over a week. De La Hoya says “Is that fight [Mayweather vs. Mosley] going to happen? I’m confident that it will.”
One advantage that this fight has compared to the failed talks between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao is that both Mayweather and Mosley are promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, so there won’t be any hassles with having to deal with another promoter. Mayweather went around and circles with Pacquiao and his promotional team for over a month, and still was unable to complete negotiations for a fight because the two sides reached a stalemate when it came to the random blood testing methods.
The LA Times states that De La Hoya he doesn’t think that the random drug tests will be any problem for this fight compared to the failed fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao. De La Hoya says “I believe Mosley will raise his hand, and say, ‘Take me to the lab.’ In contrast, Pacquiao agreed to take three blood tests – one at the kick off for the fight, another 30 days before the fight and then a final blood test after the fight. Mayweather wanted the blood tests to be truly random and not just three times.
Pacquiao then agreed to have his blood tested 24 days before the fight, but Mayweather wanted the testing to be stopped at 14 days before the bout. At that point, the negotiations effectively ended.
De La Hoya says that Golden Boy Promotions will work on the boxing commissions to try and get then to create tougher drug testing policies similar to the ones used by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. If Golden Boy can get the commissions on board with using stricter drug testing, then arranging a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao should get a lot easier, at least in the area of drug testing.
De La Hoya says “You know what’s happening out there: all these athletes are taking steroids. I fought two guys on steroids [Mosley and Fernando Vargas]. It’s dangerous. I would love to see testing to be mandatory. It’s crucial. This is not like hitting a baseball or running a sprint. It’s two guys bashing their heads in.”
De La Hoya has a good point. If the urine testing that is used to check for steroids is outdated, there needs to be more up to date tests to prevent fighters who are using steroids or growth hormone from being able to get away with it. If it helps boxing, it should be something that is embraced.
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