By Ryan Dunn: Okay, I’ve been waiting to put this article out for a while now but decided I would do my research first, gather the facts, compare my analysis, and verify my findings. Think of this as a dossier intended to illuminate some truths about anti-doping testing, and a way to address the thousand pound gorilla in the room: which performance enhancement drugs (PEDs) can be detected in the blood but not in the urine, and how does this relate to our great sport of boxing.

I was originally going to post a long dissertation about every type of PED, from steroids to anesthetics. But I realized the crux of today’s conversation has to do more with the state of testing in boxing than the type of drugs being taken. I know they go hand-in-hand, but we really need to be educated when diving into debates about what standards should be instilled moving forward in the sport. With that in mind, let me first explain a few of the politics of anti-doping and why even the most trusted names in testing will always be a couple steps behind.

The first point of note is that there is an ongoing race for athletes and their trainers to outsmart and cheat the system, and so far they’re winning. And the other factor is that every evolution in technology (improved urinalysis, nanotechnology, etc.) and testing formats (saliva, hair, etc.) has to go through several layers of bureaucracy and rigorous debate before becoming standardized within organizations like USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) or WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). This is to avoid frivolous lawsuits and other risks to the health or well-being of the athletes they oversee. These factors stunt the battle to keep athletes honest, but the agencies are still making strides, albeit slower than they should in my opinion.

Okay, onto the subject of blood vs. urine. As far as my research has led me (and I’ve dug far and wide, believe me), there are really only two substances WADA and USADA and other agencies are using blood tests for (they will tell you there are more, but from what I’ve researched, all of them are just a part of a group on a blood panel and can also be detected just as effectively with urine). Every other substance, including anabolic steroids, “andro”, creatine, stimulants, erythropoietin (EPO), pain killers and diuretics, can be detected in the urine.

The first PED the agencies are using blood tests to detect is hGH (human growth hormone, and hGH releasers), and the second is an EPO known as Mircera. But if we were to apply the anti-doping standards to the rules and regulations of boxing for a moment, I think you will be surprised to see that there is really no gain to using random, Olympic-style blood testing in the sport. Let me explain…

The problem with the hGH blood test is that, in so many words, it’s not that good. It only has a detection window of 24-48 hours, and even with that, not a single professional athlete has ever been busted using hGH with this test; it just happens to be the only proven method in science today.

But WAIT! As of last year, a new method of testing for hGH has surfaced called NanoTrap. It was developed and instituted by CeresNano, a company focused on the use of nanotechnology as a means for detection. The detection window for hGH using NanoTrap urinalysis averages two weeks, quite an improvement over the 1-2 days of detection in the blood, wouldn’t you agree? It’s worth noting, too, that USADA actually helped fund the research of this method, and any day now they should be standardizing it as part of their testing regime, likely to replace the ineffective blood tests for hGH.

And as far as the EPO known as Mircera goes, the reason it doesn’t show up in the urine is because it breaks down in the body to molecules too large to pass through the kidneys. This makes it extremely difficult to detect in the urine, but it also means it stays in your body much longer. In fact, even a small dose of Mircera will stay in the body for an average of forty-two days. That means that, even with announced blood testing — as was requested by Manny Pacquiao in his recent negotiations with Floyd Mayweather Jr. — it would be impossible to cycle down during training and beat the tests.

Now lets think about this for a moment. If hGH and Mircera are the only things anti-doping agencies are looking for in the blood, and if urine is more effective now for detecting hGH, AND… if Mircera stays in your system so long that a three-test regime for blood would catch any fighter from press day to fight night, what is the grounds for demanding random blood testing? It is a more invasive, higher risk (blood is considered hazardous waste when transporting, for example), and antiquated method of testing athletes. Nobody truly likes to get stuck with a needle and have blood drawn from their body, much less an athlete in heavy training and dieting.

If Floyd Mayweather Jr. (or any other athlete) is looking to clean up the sport of boxing and protect themselves from juiced opponents, they should petition their boxing commissions to institute the latest in urinalysis technologies, demand random urine up to and on fight night, and instate a three-test regime for blood testing to truly protect themselves, and make the sport more honest.

And there’s one more thing to ponder, before I leave you. Beyond urine and blood there lies saliva and follicle testing. Hair is more expensive, but much more accurate, with much longer detection windows (up to two or three months compared to only weeks via urine or blood). And Saliva gives the same benefits of urine, can be fully supervised, and you can’t flush saliva out of your system, which makes it impossible to dilute the drugs out of your body. USADA and WADA are dragging their feet to instate these methods, that whole bureaucracy thing at work once again.

Well… you heard it here first folks. And as always, if you have more information regarding the rewards of random blood testing as it pertains to boxing, by all means let me know, and I will reconsider my stance no problem. Until then, happy pondering!