Top Rank boss Bob Arum confirmed on Friday that his fighter Manny Pacquiao is open to unlimited random blood testing, as demanded by Floyd Mayweather during their failed negotiations last year.
As quoted by AC/Yahoo, Arum said:
“We have agreed in the Pacquiao camp to unlimited random testing done by a responsible, neutral organization. We don’t believe USADA is a neutral organization.”
Unlimited in this case presumably meaning without any cut off dates before the fight, although Arum’s wording leaves this frustratingly open to interpretation.
Arum’s one remaining stipulation is that the USADA isn’t involved in the proceedings.
What Arum is basing his assertion that the USADA isn’t a neutral organization isn’t clear exactly, but certain comments by USADA chief Travis Tygart such as this one he made to No Holds Barred might have a lot to do with things:
“Our clean athletes are demanding for more testing”
Tygart’s over-zealousness in attempting to insert the USADA into the sport, all the while insinuating that fighters not interested in his program were less likely to be clean athletes, seems to be coming back to haunt him.
It was also revealed several weeks ago by super middleweight ace Andre Ward that the costs involved likely put the testing regime out of the reach of all but a handful of the top earning fighters anyway.
If in fact Pacquiao and Arum have agreed to fully random blood testing however, the Mayweather fight might have just gotten a lot closer, despite the fact that Golden Boy appear to be pushing Amir Khan as Floyd’s next opponent after Victor Ortiz.
The only possible remaining issue is seemingly whether Mayweather is willing to give up on the USADA and bring in a different testing organization.
Outwardly there doesn’t seem to be any reason why he would have particular allegiance to Tygarts outfit however, and if as Arum proposes the testing is overseen by an athletic commission and conducted under similar circumstances, there doesn’t appear to be any reason why Mayweather would object.
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If Mayweather insists on using the USADA for all his future fights however, and won’t compromise his choice of testing company, testing could still be a divisive issue.
Given that Mayweather appears to have gotten his way however, even if at the cost of his preferred testing organization, refusing to accept Arum’s stipulation would likely lead to a big backlash from fans.
While Arum sounds sure of his star’s stance however, there does appear to still some confusion over the issue within Pacquiao’s camp.
Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz was interviewed by FightHype on Thursday and specifically stated that Pacquiao had not agreed to random testing without a cut off date, although didn’t know how many days out from the fight the cut off date Pacquiao would agree to now stood at.
Whether Arum or Koncz would know better is debatable although the former likely has more influence over Pacquiao’s decisions.
Robert Shaw, Pitt: “Floyd should agree to these terms, then again until Pacquiao himself says it I’m dubious, Arum will say whatever people want to hear and then change his story the next day”
