Bob Arum says those rushing to judgment regarding Lamont Peterson and Andre Berto are making a mistake.
Peterson’s positive performance-enhancing drug test forced the cancellation of his May 19 rematch against Amir Khan, whom Peterson upset to win two junior welterweight titles Dec. 10. Berto’s positive test for nandrolone caused a second postponement last week of his welterweight rematch with Victor Ortiz, which was scheduled for June 23 in Los Angeles.
Arum, a Hall of Fame promoter prone to making controversial comments, still won’t consider them guilty of anything other than carelessness until he has solid proof that they deliberately attempted to circumvent the rules in a sport desperately in need of standardized PED testing. His company, Top Rank Inc., doesn’t promote Peterson or Berto, but he thinks there are too many possible variables in the testing procedures that could’ve caused misleading results.
“The point is, unless everybody [in boxing] sits down and works through this, without rhetoric, we’ll have chaos,” Arum said Tuesday on a conference call to promote Manny Pacquiao’s June 9 welterweight title fight against Timothy Bradley. “Personally, I don’t believe that Lamont Peterson is a cheater. I don’t believe that Andre Berto is a cheater.”
Arum agrees that pre-fight and post-fight PED testing should be the standard in boxing, not just for fights in which one boxer or both want it.
He has been criticized, however, for not using the Las Vegas-based Voluntary Anti-Doping Association or another agency prior to Top Rank events, particularly cards that feature Pacquiao, one of boxing’s two biggest stars. Longtime antagonist Floyd Mayweather Jr. has chastised Pacquiao for not helping promote PED testing by demanding it for his fights, though Pacquiao repeatedly has stated he would take tests prior to a long-discussed showdown with Mayweather.
One thing is indisputable ? boxing has yet another significant issue to resolve. We can only hope the disorganized sport’s power brokers begin working as soon as possible on making testing a regular practice participants fully understand.
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