IBF light welterweight champion Zab Judah hinted over the weekend that he may propose an Olympic style testing regime to July opponent Amir Khan ahead of their bout.
Initially asked his view on the random blood testing while talking to fans as he regularly does on his twitter account, Judah replied that he had no problem with it.
Over the course of several days this evidently morphed into Judah picking up the idea and running with it, and when later asked if he would be requesting Olympic style testing for the Khan fight replying:
“oh yes we are!!!”
He was later asked whether Khan had accepted the proposition to which he replied that he hadn’t, yet.
Khan himself has being making the rounds with both U.S and U.K media in between training sessions at the Wild Card gym in Los Angeles, but has yet to comment on the issue.
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Presumably since the fight has already been signed and sealed, neither Khan nor Judah has any real way of making the other adhere to any kind of extra testing than the athletic commissions require.
If Khan was to turn down a proposal of extra testing however, there would undoubtedly be some who would take this as some kind of sign of guilt.
The fiasco surrounding attempts to pit Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather against each other and the subsequent debate over testing in boxing is well documented.
Khan trains with Pacquiao, and for those who still believe to this day that the Filipino is taking some kind of performance enhancing drugs, Khan turning down a request for extra testing would only reaffirm their suspicions. Advertisement
Of course neither Khan nor Pacquiao have ever failed a drug test, and aside from aspersions from rival fighters, have never been suspected of any wrongdoing. Not to mention that Khan fought in the Olympics before turning pro, winning the silver medal at lightweight, and as such is familiar with Olympic testing.
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Judah’s talk of random blood testing also attracted the interest of former Balco owner Victor Conte, who at one time supplied performance enhancing drugs to athletes but has since become an advocate of Olympic style testing. Conte asked fans:
“Wonder if @AmirKingKhan and/or @SUPERJUDAH are open to Olympic style drug testing? Donaire and Ward have expressed an interest.”
When later asked if he suspected Pacquiao and Khan, Conte replied none too subtley:
“2 Wild Card boxers tested positive for steroids. Justin Fortune & James Toney. Fortune worked w/Pacquiao. Boxing needs testing.”
Of course looking into the history of any large and high profile gym will often turn up a few steroid users, and given the amount of fighters that have trained at the wild card over the years, one or two individuals using performance enhancing drugs is hardly surprising.
Whether Judah is asking for the extra testing solely do get inside of Khan’s head or whether he feels he needs to be open to it simply so that another witch hunt doesn’t begin as it did with Pacquiao isn’t clear.
Ian Sean, Pitt: “Judah can ask and Khan can ignore him, he didn’t want it when they were making the contracts so he has no reason to ask for it now”
