PEDs and boxers
WHILE news that mixed martial arts ( MMA) fighter Jon Jones failed another drug test spread like wildfire, the case of top heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz also failing another drug test looks like a footnote in the boxing scene. Up to now.
Ortiz ( 27- 0 with 23 knockouts) was supposed to meet World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (38-0 with 37 KOs) on November 4 in what should have been a megafight between two behemoths with knockout power. But Ortiz failed a pre- fight drug test.
This is the second time Ortiz failed a drug test; he failed a drug test in 2014 from which he got a nine- month ban. The Cuban heavyweight joins the list of boxers who have failed drug tests in the past few years, proving that performance enhancing drugs ( PEDs) and other banned substances like diuretics have found their way into the “sweet science” and not just MMA.
Other notable boxers who failed drug tests include welterweight/ junior middleweights Shane Mosley and Ricardo Mayorga, light- heavyweight Antonio Tarver, and heavyweights James Toney and Alexander Povetkin. And many more!
But it looks like the boxing world is more tolerant toward pugilists who fail drug tests, because Mosley still went on to fight Manny Pacquiao in May 2011 while Mayorga can still fight if a promoter takes interest in him. Ortiz’s sanction has not yet been made clear, but I believe he also should be suspended for four years.
If Ortiz gets a four- year suspension like Jones, that would effectively end the career of the Cuban who is now 38 years old.
Many decades back, PEDs, then popularly called steroids, were more associated with bodybuilders, power lifters, Olympic lifters and American football players. At the time, the dangers of us- ing PEDs under non- medical conditions, or when a doctor does not prescribe them, were already being ventilated by the medical and sports communities. And boxing was perceived to be literally free of PEDs a few decades back that no one suspected fighters like Mike Tyson, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns of using banned substances, even if they looked too muscular for boxers for their time.
But the use of PEDs and ease of getting them through the Internet has made their illegal use more rampant, with a growing number of non- professional athletes reportedly taking them to pack on muscles just to look good.
Perhaps the stakes in professional sports has become too high with top athletes guaranteed millions of dollars in earnings, pressuring many athletes to use PEDs.
Raising a ruckus over top athletes using PEDs and slapping them stiff sanctions can deter, but not completely stop, the use of banned substances in sports. So Jones getting a four- year suspension was a good step, and the same should be given to Ortiz.
More stringent testing procedure, like what was applied for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.- Pacquiao megafight, was a good step. The drug testing procedure for MayweatherPacquiao can be considered precedent even at the elite level because it included random extraction and testing of blood and urine samples for both fighters.
Maybe the drug testing procedure for MayweatherPacquiao should be standard for all championship fights in boxing and MMA; that would be one good way to get rid of PED use in the two major combat sports.