In a recent conversation that I had with the former Jr welterweight world champion, Paulie Malignaggi, the topic of steroids in boxing came up. We had a long conversation about it, and the former champ had a lot of very interesting things to say.
Now, before some of you chime in with comments about how you think Malignaggi is a bum, or a nobody, or a this or that, remember this much, he’s a former world champion.
Malignaggi is a former world champion prize fighter, and he defeated Juan Diaz in most people’s eyes twice. He’s one of the most intelligent guys in the sport and I admire him for not being afraid to speak his mind.
Manny Pacquiao has been accused of taking steroids by a growing number of people. I recently had lunch with two old school boxing people. One of them trained over 14 world champions in his day, and the other one was part of Muhammad Ali’s training camp on 4 different occasions. Both men firmly believe that Manny is taking something. More and more fighters are starting to agree with the Mayweathers that Pacquiao is on something. Most of them say it off of the record, nevertheless they are saying it.
Personally? I have never witnessed or heard of Manny taking anything. I have seen first hand several of his training camps, and I have seen his work ethic. His training regiment is second to none. I at this time have no reason to believe that Manny is taking anything illegal. This being said, it’s true that more and more people are suspecting that he is taking something. Is this just due to the fact that Manny has dominated in so many weight classes? Yes, that’s basically what the argument is The Mayweathers all firmly believe that steroids of some sort have played a big part of Manny’s success. Manny’s supporters counter that. His supporters believe that Manny’s success is due to hard work in the gym.
Malignaggi says, “Boxing should make all fighters that are fighting for world championship fights take blood tests.” He added, ” It’s not just about Mayweather and Pacquiao. The commissions should make every fighter that fights for a world title take a blood test.”
I agree with Malignaggi. I too believe that any fighter in boxing that is training for a world title should be subjected to random blood testing. When baseball had guys like Sosa, McGwire, Bonds, and Palmero all slamming 50, 60, and 70 HR’s the country (USA) knew what was up. Finally baseball cracked down on the players, and now tests them for steroids. Since then, how many guys are hitting 50 plus home runs now?
Boxing needs to do the same thing. It would be expensive to blood test every professional fighter in the world, so testing only world title fights would be a good start.
Mississippians that I have spoken to about the topic of steroids and testing mostly agree with me. I spoke with Robert Gregory of Morton, MS yesterday. I posed the question to him…..Should fighters that are fighting for a world title be subjected to random blood testing? He pulled no punches, ” I definitely think that by randomly testing pro fighters it would clean up the sport and provide a fair playing field.” I couldn’t agree more.
