Juan Manuel Marquez hit Manny Pacquiao with his right many times when they fought to a draw in 2004 and in the close fights Pacquiao won in 2004 and 2001. But the compact, powerful right Marquez landed to end Saturday?s fight in Las Vegas was different. This one sent Pacquiao facedown to the canvas, giving Marquez a definitive sixth-round knockout.
What had changed? Well, for one thing, Marquez sure looked different: The 39-year-old Mexican boxer showed up for this fight bigger and brawnier than ever ? even though he is at an age when athletes find it hard to build muscle.
But it wasn?t just Marquez?s new ripped body that invited the inevitable speculation about whether performance-enhancing drugs fueled the powerful right that leveled his longtime rival Pacquiao. It was also the presence of his trainer, a shadowy figure named Angel Hernandez, the former steroid dealer previously known as Angel (Memo) Heredia who turned government witness in the 2008 prosecution of track coach Trevor Graham.
Hernandez, a former Mexican national discus champion who earned a degree in exercise science from Texas A&M, addressed the speculation that Marquez?s new muscles were fueled by drugs at a November news conference. ?We were the first ones who said that we are not using anything illegal,? Heredia said, according to The Ring. ?It doesn?t make me angry because they can always have the opinions they want. We don?t have to hide.?
Hernandez testified in 2008 that he sent performance-enhancing drugs to several athletes Graham once worked with, including Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Maurice Greene.
Hernandez provided prosecutors with shipping records, wire-money transfers, phone records and blood-test results that backed up his claims, and described how he not only provided drugs to Graham?s athletes but helped them beat Olympic drug tests. Graham was convicted of one count of lying to federal agents while Hernandez, described in the Graham indictment as ?Source A,? avoided prosecution by cooperating with the government.
Graham is the coach who anonymously sent a syringe containing the designer steroid THG to the United States Anti-Doping Agency in 2003, kicking off the investigation into BALCO founder Victor Conte, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to conspiracy to distribute steroids and money laundering, and is now an anti-doping advocate who works with athletes, including boxers.
Hernandez has had a running battle on Twitter with Conte, who says he has never met Hernandez nor worked with him in any capacity and has called for an ?Interpol? investigation of Hernandez.
Conte isn?t the only Hernandez skeptic. Pacquiao?s trainer, Freddie Roach, implied in an interview with USA Today before last weekend?s fight that Marquez?s new body was the result of performance-enhancing drugs. So have many boxing writers and fans, and Marquez seemed angry when he addressed the controversy during a prefight news conference.
If Marquez?s protests have been greeted with derision, however, it should come as no suprise. Because boxing has no uniform drug-testing program in place, a fighter whose physique drastically changes should be prepared for the kind of speculation that Marquez is now facing. Neither Pacquiao nor Marquez was drug-tested before their Saturday night fight.
Boxers who do agree to drug testing generally do so contractually, enlisting either USADA or the Volunteer Anti-Doping Association (VADA) Conte supports to administer tests.
Even then, promoters often balk at testing. VADA caught junior welterweight champion Lamont Peterson on synthetic testosterone, causing his May 19 title defense against Amir Khan to be canceled, and former welterweight champion Andre Berto tested positive for steroids, ending his June fight against Victor Ortiz at the Staples Center.
Since then, Berto?s promoter, Golden Boy, has stopped working with VADA and is using USADA to test its fighters.
In New York, USADA found the banned substance clenbuterol in former world champion Erik Morales? sample, but Golden Boy and the New York State Athletic Commission let Morales? junior-welterweight title shot proceed in October against Danny Garcia. Garcia won on a fourth-round knockout.
USADA informed Morales in November that he faces a two-year competition ban because the second ?B? drug sample he provided was also positive for clenbuterol. He has said he may retire.
So until boxing establishes an anti-doping program that works, Hernandez and Marquez will continue to face suspicion, and offer denials.
?I think that you can say anything that you want, but you don?t have any proof, so what does that mean?? The Ring reported Marquez as saying. ?It means nothing.?
