HOUSTON ? The results are out: Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez are negative of any form of performance-enhancing drugs or PEDs following tests that were conducted and supervised by the Nevada Athletic Commission after last Saturday?s fight in Las Vegas.
No one could be happier than Angel Hernandez, the strength and conditioning coach of Marquez.
?Like I said in the beginning we haven?t done anything that is illegal and the results show today. A lot of rumors in the past have been done against Manny and Marquez today. You cannot judge anybody by association or judge anybody of being drugs positive when there is none. This should clear the air,? said Hernandez.
He also said Marquez is open to a fifth fight with Pacquiao, and if the Filipino decides to do his next fight in September then the Mexican will have to do a smaller fight by June.
?I spoke to Marquez and I think he wants to do it. It?s up to the promoters. I think he (Marquez) wants two months off then fight in June at 140 (pounds) or with Manny. He wants September? Then that means Marquez can fight a small fight and then go for the big fight,? said Hernandez.
In the weeks leading to last week?s fight, Marquez raised a lot of eyebrows when he showed up for a media workout all bulked up, ripped and so incredible.Dean’s Corner ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
The presence of Heredia in his team only made it more suspicious because Heredia once admitted peddling illegal enhancers.
Marquez knocked out Pacquiao with one punch. It could have knocked a horse down. Again, it raised the question: Is Marquez clean?
Hernandez once testified before court of supplying illegal enhancers to disgraced track superstars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.
But he said they?re a thing of the past, and if the tests show that Marquez is clean, then he, too, is clean.
Friday he spoke to reporters, after the Nonito Donaire-Jorge Arce weigh-in at the PlazAmericas, and said the negative results of last Saturday?s fight should clear the air.
Then he called for stronger regulations among all boxing commissions. It will take a lot of time, money, effort and cooperation but he said it can be done.
?If it was me I would do it but I?m not the commissioner,? said Hernandez.
Pacquio used to be on the same boat, being accused of taking illegal enhancers or steroids after he started rolling over bigger guys like Oscar dela Hoya, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.
However, Yahoo! Sports reported that Pacquiao and Marquez proving negative is no guarantee that either fighter didn?t take anything illegal during training.
?Nevada did not test either Marquez or Pacquiao until the day of the fight, making it impossible to detect the usage of certain substances such as EPO. EPO is a hormone that increases the blood?s ability to carry oxygen. All traces of it leave the body within 24 hours,? wrote Kevin Iole.
Iole also wrote that ?Larry Bowers, the chief scientist of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said in an affadavit in the Lance Armstrong case that the lack of a positive test is not proof that one did not dope.?
But Hernandez wouln?t hear any of this. What?s important to him, he said, is that the results are out and they?re negative.
He said Marquez? stunning victory was a result of pure hard work and the timing of the punch.
?We worked a lot on strength and on power and on speed, snappy. It could have happened to anybody. Pacquiao could have knocked out Marquez if he had him in the right position. It was the right momentum and the right angle,? he said.
