Boxing, Sports and Steroids: Is The Juice Still On The Loose?

New York, NY (February 27, 2013)– With all of the goings on inside and outside of the boxing ring in 2013, including all of the high profile boxing cards on ESPN2, Showtime and Home Boxing Office, details can often be overlooked. While in the United States, anti-doping regulations and organizations have put a clamp on the use of steroids and Human Growth Hormone (HGH) in the stronger states under ABC boxing control, there’s still a big problem out there. There’s a whole rest of the world out there.

Athletes use Human Growth Hormones. Athletes use steroids. Athletes cheat.

Two organizations in existence today see to it, to the greatest extent possible, that athletes using illegal steroids and human growth hormones, and other illegal substances where such use is prohibited are identified, punished and prohibited from amateur and professional competition when caught. Established in 1999, The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) located in Montreal, Canada, promotes coordinates and monitors the fight against doping in sport in all forms. Established in 2011, The Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) located in Las Vegas, Nevada, is an independent organization founded to offer and promote anti-doping programs in boxing and Mixed Martial Arts.

Real Combat Media is not responsible for enforcing WADA or VADA anti-doping testing of amateur and professional athletes, nor is Real Combat Media responsible for identifying athletes who could be in violation of WADA and VADA policy whose names have already been mentioned in the media, or have not been mentioned in the media. Any names of athletes mentioned below in regards to allegations of steroid use have been mentioned in the press before, and Real Combat Media neither confirms nor denies whether the below named individuals are engaged in any form of drug or substance abuse.

While Lance Armstrong was one of the few athletes to admit being on the stuff after test results had him backed into a corner, far too many professional athletes out there are riding high pumped on their ‘juice’. They use it to build muscles, improve performance, have better physiques than their competition, to have the extra edge which cheating provides.

Ali Adams, Andre Berto, Erik Morales, Shane Mosley, Vitali Klitschko, Juan Manuel Marquez, Francois Botha, Mariano Carrera, Orlando Salido, Roy Jones Jr., Richard Hall, James Toney, Lamont Peterson and Fernando Vargas are among those professional boxers who have had to deal with steroid tests and allegations. Perhaps this is the main reason why Floyd Mayweather Jr. insists Manny Pacquiao submit to an extensive battery of tests to detect the presence of steroids or HGH before they fight. Pacman would not budge on either the issue of the tests or the cash, so the reasons Pacquiao versus Mayweather has not taken place yet is still open to dispute.

There needs to be established international standards for testing for steroids, with both regular and random testing required for amateur and professional athletes.

Worldwide Wrestling Federation 1992 Steroids News Story on YouTube

Heavyweight boxer Bob Hazelton, whose steroid use later caused him to have both of his legs amputated, and football player Lyle Alzado, who died of brain cancer, are only two examples of the numerous athletes who destroyed themselves with steroid use and abuse. Alzado claimed 75% of pro football players used steroids. Hulk Hogan was the first of many wrestlers alleged to have used steroids. Superstar Billy Graham, wrestling star of the 1970’s, had a hip replaced and operations on his ankles due to bone degeneration because of steroids, which Graham says 90% of professional wrestlers today still use. Canadian wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife, daughter and himself while on prescription anabolic steroids. Wrestler Eddie Guerrero died of an enlarged heart due to anabolic steroid use. Mark McGuire, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez and Governor Jesse Ventura and among those high profile athletes linked to steroids. Rodriguez already needs a hip replacement, and he’s only 37 years old.

The apartment of South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius contained boxes of synthetic versions of natural steroids at the time of his arrested for premeditated murder. Natural Steroids have been known to trigger unusually aggressive behavior and violence, leaving open the possibility of a ‘Roid defense’ by the legal defense team in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial which will begin in June 2013.

These days, it is hard for me to look at a publicized boxing match where one or both of the athletes have ripped bodybuilder bodies if I think too hard. Once a boxing match begins, and all of the whoopla begins, how quickly everybody forgets what the athlete looks like and how they got there. Everyone only wants to remember who won the boxing match and report the result as the story. Once and awhile, a cheater like Antonio Margarito or Luis Resto gets exposed, or a fouling boxer like an Andrew Golota gets disqualified. Far too often I think boxers and boxing corners get away with things they aren’t supposed to because boxing commissions and officials are not paying careful attention to important details, which can allow for situations of cheating when boxers and their corners are not monitored careful enough.

I predict in the near future boxing will undergo a radical change at the amateur and professional level. The prospects, contenders, champions and cheaters will all have to be separated from one another. To do otherwise worldwide would be a crime. Every boxer deserves a fair chance to succeed, but clearly some boxers, like many other athletes, have achieved success contingent on an unfair advantage with steroids. It has to stop now, or boxers will be dying soon at an alarming rate from cancer and bone degeneration from steroid abuse, and not from getting hit in the head. My ‘Roid rage’ stems from the fact boxing still does not have universal worldwide commission regulated controls or a system in place to screen out steroids cheaters and abusers. Far too often it’s an eye test, sometimes a medical exam with a few tests like an EEG and EKG and an HIV test, the fights are over, and good luck to whoever fought them, Amen.

A winner is somebody who is honest and plays the game fair, square and clean.

Boxing, like other sports, still has its share of steroid cheaters. As long as American athletes who go abroad do not know the testing situations of their opponents (and often they do not know) cheating must be presumed under those circumstances.