If you are one of those Internet hounds that love to troll through boxing websites, you most certainly have heard about the alleged former Filipino sparring partner who, while choosing to remain anonymous, claims to have personally injected an illegal substance to Manny Pacquiao?s butt cheeks.
This former Pacman team member also alleges that the injections started right before the Oscar de la Hoya fight.
Odiously, Pacquiao?s latest victim, Sugar Scared Mostly, picked up the story in his Twitter account.
EVIDENCE. Being a legal practitioner, I vehemently subscribe to the mantra that a man is innocent till proven guilty. Manny has passed every lawfully mandated test in all the jurisdictions he has fought in.
Ergo, aside from innuendo and rumor, there is no reason to sully Manny?s sterling pugilistic legacy with unfounded accusations. Unless the alleged whistleblower publicly comes out and stands behind his yarn, there is no scintilla of proof that Manny is a juicer.
But of course, that makes for terrific gossip.
WEIGHT. Most of the suspicion is founded on the misconception that Manny has ?bulked? up in weight in such a short amount of time.
This misplaced rationalization stems from an ignorance of the dynamics surrounding a boxer?s weight.
In today?s system of 24-hour weigh-ins before fight time, most fighters are actually trying to take advantage of this one- day window for them to rehydrate back to their full weight by fight time. So they choose to compete at a weight class or two below their ideal fighting weight.
Ergo, a fighter who normally walks around at 160 pounds, which is the middleweight limit, will fight at welterweight, which is at the 141-147-pound range.
If he makes the limit at the weigh-in, he can bulk up to his natural weight and become a middleweight at fight time.
There are inherent risks and dangers surrounding this practice, but apparently most trainers are sold on this. Rightly or wrongly, they put a premium on size come fight time, perceiving it as an advantage.
By way of example, the late Arturo Gatti was a staunch practitioner of this system. An in-your- face brawler with a take-no-prisoners approach, being stronger and bigger than the opponent was a big part of his game.
In February 2000, Gatti fought Joey Gamache and outweighed him by more than 20 pounds at fight time. He proceeded to butcher Gamache in two rounds and the latter never fought again.
Gamache filed suit and won a verdict for negligence against the state athletic commission.
PACMAN. Manny, however, has trail-blazed a path of non-conformity with the prevailing school of thought. When he moved up in weight from lightweight to junior welterweight and currently at welterweight, he has been fighting closer to his natural weight or walk-around weight.
This has allowed him to retain his speed and stamina even during the later rounds of a championship fight as he does not resort to feverishly re-hydrating in just 24 hours, which causes some boxers to become sluggish.
Hence, when he fought Oscar at a catch weight of 145 pounds, he wasn?t actually even moving up in weight, as Manny walks around in the vicinity of 150-155 pounds.
He doesn?t need to bulk up. Competing at a higher weight class only means he has to cut less poundage.
