The prison cell which Floyd Mayweather finds so distasteful is turning into a sanctuary wherein he avoids being hit by large boxers falling out of the branches of the steroids tree which he has shaken so vigorously.
British heavyweight Larry Olubamiwo would have crushed Floyd Junior on landing. So would American light-heavy Antonio Tarver.
Both came crashing down last week. Unfortunately for Mayweather his arch rival for the mythical title of greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world has taken no such tumble from grace. Despite Team Mayweather?s insinuations, the distinctly un-muscular Manny Pacquiao has never tested positive for anything more sinister than the after-dinner cognac he endorses.
Nevertheless, the man who calls himself Money has made a vital contribution to the sport which rewards him so generously that he has supplanted Tiger Woods as the highest paid athlete on the planet (The PacMan, by the way, is now No 2 on that list, with Tiger Woods third).
Mayweather?s vociferous campaign for Olympic standard drug-testing to be enforced in prize-fighting has to be given much of the credit for this recent increase in the exposure of drugs cheats in the ring.
Since lives are violently at risk in this, the toughest work-place in sport, Mayweather has gone some way to redeeming himself for the domestic battery conviction which sentenced him to three months in the slammer. He was making an issue of dope-testing before Lamont Peterson was discovered to have robbed Amir Khan of his world light-welterweight titles with the help not only of dodgy judging but steroid implants.
The enhanced vigilance Mayweather demands has encouraged state athletic commissions in the US ? notably Nevada and California ? to step up their anti-drug procedures.
Tarver tested positive following a controversial draw against Lateef Kayode. He is appealing pending the return of his B sample but of itself the case strengthens the warning to other fighters that the risk of getting caught is becoming too great to be worth taking.
It is ironic that the Americans, who have been notoriously hesitant in tackling the steroid abuse believed to be rife in major league football, baseball and basketball, should be leading the way.
Information from across the Atlantic regarding international trafficking in performance enhancing drugs led the UK Anti-Doping Agency to Olubamiwo. The Hackney heavyweight, having failed a test for EPO at the time of his January fight with Sam Sexton, has been banned for four years after confessing to the use of no fewer than 13 banned substances during six years as an amateur and professional.
With that much stuff being injected into his hind quarters it is surprising he has never won the Derby.
While apologising for pumping himself into a potentially lethal weapon in the ring, Olubamiwo said that he had been encouraged to offend by seeing some of his ring idols escape with little or no punishment.
That is less likely to happen now. When Andre Berto was caught cheating last month his lucrative re-match with Victor Ortiz was called off and his career put in jeopardy.
Multiple world champion Sugar Shane Mosley, a previously convicted drugs cheat, has retired after being obliged by Mayweather to undergo rigorous testing before they did battle. Mayweather won that fight comfortably and remains undefeated but his greatest victory may prove to be the one which makes the hardest old game safer for all fighters.
The knee-jerk reaction to the recent spate of failed tests has been to heap drug abuse onto boxing?s several troubles, most notably of suspect decisions of late rendered by incompetent judges, like those which robbed Pacquiao and Khan of their championships.
That is unfair. On current evidence, the sport is trying to clean up a cess-pit of chemical substances and dirty syringes.
For this, Floyd Money Mayweather deserves thanks.
By the time he comes out of Clark County jail and subsequently climbs back through the ropes, the ring should be a cleaner and safer platform to inhabit.
