By Ryan Dunn: Picking up where Steve Lewis left off, I wanted to make a few more points on the matter of Floyd Mayweather’s drug-testing conditions. At the end of the day the fans have mostly made up their minds as to who is to blame for the fight falling apart. But regarding the blood-testing clause in the contract, there are many questions as to the motives behind its validity. One of the biggest questions revolves around the cut-off date.
Here’s the short version: Floyd asks for unlimited blood and urine up until fight night, Manny says unlimited urine and 3 blood tests with a 30-day cut off, Floyd says 14 days, Manny says 24, Floyd says no, and the fight is off. But where did these dates come from?
Floyd’s original demand is easiest to demystify; he wanted testing right up until fight night. It’s the most effective way to catch an athlete in the act. And if we go on Pacquiao’s word, he basically wanted that last blood test as far away from fight night as he could get it. In fact, Manny Pacquiao didn’t want ANY blood testing at first. In an official statement on his website he spoke out: “The truth is, taking blood out of my body does not seem natural to me and mentally I feel it will weaken me if blood is taken from me just days before the fight.”
But when someone informed Pacquiao that hGH can only be detected in the blood, he promptly agreed to three blood tests in addition to the unlimited urine: “I have offered to give a blood sample the day of the Announcement of the fight at the Press Release. I have Offered to give a blood sample 30 days before the fight. I am willing to give blood immediately after the fight is over inside my dressing room . I am also willing to give urine tests at anytime any where everyday leading up to the fight.”
This 30-day counter offer fell on deaf ears and brought the negotiations to a screeching halt. This was in keeping with Floyd Mayweather’s stance. He did not want to compromise. Like or dislike the demand, you can respect his sticking to his guns, right? If you’re wondering why I’m not quote Floyd here, it’s because he remained off the record until the very end of negotiations, not speaking publicly until after they had essentially died.
Then some news broke. And here’s where you will discover where these pesky cut-off dates came from. An episode of the HBO series “Pacquiao-Hatton 24/7,” aired 14 days before that fight where Manny Pacquiao goes in for his mandatory physical and has blood drawn. The Mayweathers waved their hands and cried foul. Wait a minute! If Manny was willing to take a blood test 14 days before the Hatton fight, why would he ask for a 30-day cut off in this one? The case was made to Team Pacquiao and Top Rank. Bob Arum said he would look into the matter and bring the information directly to Manny himself.
However, if you are asking for Olympic-Style testing, then the whole point is to test right up to the event, otherwise the program is virtually pointless. Team Mayweather countered nonetheless, asking for a 14-day cut off. You can argue this was the moment where Team Mayweather saw the fight — and the pay day — truly slipping away.
But with this counter-offer, a second problem arose. If you haven’t guessed the error of this demand yet, let me enlighten you. Golden Boy Promotions and Team Mayweather were basing this 14-day cut-off on an arbitrary air date of a television show. And here’s the problem: HBO does not air their documentaries live. So while the episode in question indeed aired 14 days before the fight, the actual medical exam took place 24 days before the fight.
This information was revealed to Team Pacquiao, and now it was their turn to use Team Mayweather’s own logic against them. Since Floyd and Golden Boy Promotions were requesting Manny agree to the same cut-off date as he did in the Ricky Hatton fight, Top Rank came back saying they would agree to the 24-day cut off, as reflected in that fight. These would end up being the final terms offered by Team Pacquiao. Floyd and his team had a decision to make.
The problem still persisted, however; if you want to clean up the sport and level the playing field, you would never, ever agree to a blackout window in the Olympic-Style testing. In fact, Mayweather and Golden Boy, upon hearing Team Pacquiao’s resistance to the USADA terms, countered by saying they could choose any private Anti-Doping testing, as long as it included blood testing.
In the end, Mayweather refused Pacquiao’s 24-day cut off. You can interpret this however you want, but you cannot use simple science or hGh cycles or how long it would take for the effects of EPO to clear your system or any other statistical data to support the dates both sides were offering in the negotiation. Those dates were based on cut-off dates gleaned from a cable television show, nothing more, nothing less.
One thing is certain, neither of these guys is admitting defeat. According to Floyd, “Not only do I want to fight Manny Pacquiao, I want to whip his punk ass.” And according to Manny, “I am still willing to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. I never said the fight was off or I do not want to fight him. I will fight anyone at anytime and my record and past fights prove that. I have never and will never dodge anyone.”
We will see after May 1 if both of these guys are still willing to fight one another.
Comments are closed.