Barry Bonds and Marion Jones may be wary of the media nowadays, but a principal figure involved in their now infamous sagas has embraced it.
In this instance, however, the once-maligned Victor Conte is now a wanted man for the right reasons partially due to his recent results with professional boxers.
?This whole concept of old school boxing training, waking up and running six or seven miles and chopping wood?is just not nearly as effective as the technologies that are available today,? the BALCO founder says.
After working with prominent Bay Area fighters like Nonito Donaire, Andre Ward, and Karim Mayfield, Conte?s latest pupil is current IBF super lightweight champion Zab ?Super? Judah, who fights this Saturday in Las Vegas (HBO, 7 p.m.).
?I think that the best Zab Judah is going to show up,? Conte says from his San Carlos Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Nutrioning (SNAC) headquarters. ?I believe he has tremendous confidence. He certainly has the ability and the power to win the fight, and I think he will.?
Judah (41-6, 28 KOs), a two-division world titlist from Brooklyn, is an underdog heading into a Saturday unification showdown with WBA beltholder Amir Khan of England (25-1, 17 KOs), partially as a result of his tendency to tire out in the later rounds of big fights.
In fact, the outspoken southpaw used his vast repertoire of offensive skills to take early leads against Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto before running out of gas as both fights progressed.
Enter Donaire. The San Leandro resident befriended Judah in Las Vegas and introduced him to the hypoxic machine, a high-altitude simulator and staple of Donaire?s workouts ever since he hooked up with Conte last year.
?Victor?s made me into a monster man,? Donaire declares, having shocked the boxing world with a two-round February destruction of formidable Fernando Montiel for the WBC and WBO bantamweight belts. ?He?s done a lot for me with the things I do with him and Remi Korchmeny. My speed, my power, reflexes, you name it, are on another level from before, and Zab will see it, too.?
?I’ve been with Victor now for a while. We’ve just been working for a couple of months,” Judah tells RingTV?s Lem Satterfield. ?Victor Conte is more or less a conditioner and a motivator.?
Conte discussed the merits of intermittent hypoxic training, which he feels does much more than the accepted practice of traveling to high altitudes to train before a fight.
?[The hypoxic machine] should be benefit to [Judah] because his aerobic capacity or his ability to the uptake and utilization of oxygen, and the delivery and removal of these metabolic waste by-products should be enhanced,? he argues. ?So it?s not something that?s going to help you in the first few rounds, but?as you start gassing out toward the end of the fight, his stamina and endurance should be better.?
The extent of Conte?s methods is not solely limited to infusions of oxygen. To him, every detail is scrutinized down to a science.
For instance, the fighters wear memory belts that log everything ranging from energy consumption to heart rate; they also incorporate 40-foot, 9-by-16 bungee-like resistance cords into their regular sprint workouts at the College of San Mateo with renowned track coach Remi Korchemny.
?We wrap [the cords] around a pole and make a loop and put it through,? he describes. ?They do sprints forward, and lateral side-to-side, and they do backpedaling as well. But they also incorporate coming forward and throwing punches?we tailor things to explosiveness.?
Then there are the variety of supplements the fighters take, namely ZMA, a zinc/magnesium/vitamin B6-based anabolic mineral formula that can be found in a regular health food store.
Of course, anything having to do with bodily consumption will potentially evoke suspicions of a BALCO redux. Conte is well-aware of the world he has created, and he readily warns anyone who chooses to associate with him about the repercussions publicity-wise.
?It?s just the way it is,? he bluntly states. ?By that association, it can probably bring target testing, so if they?re afraid to be tested, they?re certainly not going to come and associate with me because that?s going to put a bull?s eye on their back.?
Donaire is among those unafraid of any possible stigma that might arise from being a SNAC-trained fighter.
?I?ve tested clean every fight, and there should be no doubt with any test in the future,? he said. ?If you got needles, and you want to test me, I?m fine with that.?
Judah has not shied away from his affiliation with Conte, and perhaps a clash of new age fitness philosophies will occur on Saturday. Khan?s strength coach and nutritionist is Alex Ariza, who has received worldwide acclaim for his work with Manny Pacquiao. Conte downplayed that subplot but chimed in on the differences between Ariza and him.
?I think Alex does a lot of different things, and I think it?s more a team on the other side [with us],? he says. ?So in terms of nutrition, yes, I think we do things that they don?t do. Do we do individual programs based upon comprehensive testing so we can identify what those specific nutrition lengths are [and] where there are maybe depletions and correct those? Do I think regarding the nutritional part of this, are we more scientific than what I?ve read Alex Ariza does? We are.?
Like Conte, Ariza has his own supporters and detractors, with Roger Mayweather being in the latter camp. In a Tuesday article by BoxingScene?s Chris Robinson, the uncle and trainer of Pacquiao nemesis Floyd Mayweather accused both Pacquiao and Khan of steroid abuse. The SNAC president chimed in on what he feels is the current state of the sport vis-?-vis naturally versus artificially-obtained results.
?Do I believe that the use of performance-enhancing drugs is rampant in boxing?? he asks. ?I do. But do I also believe that there are world champions out there, the Andre Wards and Nonito Donaires and others that are clean and are doing it the right way? I do. So I think they?re leading by example and I hope that soon here we?ll see some positive change.?
In a surprising twist, after years of circumventing positive drug tests with his designer PEDs at BALCO, Conte has been consulted for advice by the U.S. and World Anti-Doping Agencies, a challenge he has readily accepted.
?It is ironic that I would be somebody who studied the system and basically successfully defeated that system?and so I?m trying to use that information to help these agencies,? he says. ?I?ve met with USADA three times. I?ve met with WADA?back in 2007 to try to help them develop more effective testing procedures.?
Now a staunch advocate for more stringent testing, he proposes a national independent commission that would be headed by universally respected longtime ring physician Dr. Margaret Goodman and would require the top ten in each division to submit to random testing anytime, anyplace, and anywhere, even if they have no immediate fight plans.
?The Olympic-style testing that Floyd Mayweather and [USADA CEO] Travis Tygart did with Shane Mosley isn?t really Olympic-style because it?s not 365 days, 24 hours, seven days a week,? Conte says, matter-of-factly. ?On the other hand, I see an independent commission with the system we?ve talked about to allow fighters to step up to the plate and prove they?re really clean. It would certainly significantly reduce the use of PEDs in boxing.?
Conte has been forthright and repentant about his egregious errors, and is cognizant that some people will never see him in a positive light again. However, he hopes that his actions from this point forward will allow his critics to at least re-examine their lingering animosity.
?I cant really do much about the mistakes I?ve made un the past other than to try to learn from those mistakes and help others to not make those same mistakes,? he says. ?I feel like I?m doing what I can to try to redeem myself to people who I hope one day will find it in their hearts to forgive me.?
Ryan Maqui?ana is a regular contributor to CSNBayArea.com and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. E-mail him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @rmaq28.
