By Jorge Conejo
When Manny Pacquiao’s hall of fame trainer Freddie Roach said he felt that Juan Manuel Marquez was not natural and revealed that he wanted random drug testing for this fight, Bob Arum rejected the idea and said if the commission implements random blood and urine year round testing then he would be okay with it but he was content with the commission tests alone. Arum is also famously known for claiming Manny Pacquiao was scared of needles, when it never came out of Pacquiao’s mouth that he was, so ignorant people starting claiming Pacquiao said this. Arum is also the one who tells Pacquiao what to do. Pacquiao trusts Arum like he was his own father so he goes along with whatever Arum tells him which is natural for any fighter who has a promoter or adviser.
Remember when Lamont Peterson tested positive for testosterone before the rematch with Amir Khan and was found out to be using testosterone replacement therapy in the first Khan fight? Arum was one of the first people to defend Peterson. I believe the reasoning that Arum was alluding to while defending Peterson was that promoters put up so much money to build up and promote a fight and to have it canceled over a drug test would put a hole in their wallet and they would have to take a huge financial loss. We all know why Arum refuses the random testing it’s because he doesn’t want to take a loss on his investment by having such a big fight that could generate millions suddenly canceled last minute over a failed drug test. Arum’s reluctance to allow the random drug testing from VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association) for Pacquiao vs. Marquez shows he doesn’t care about the integrity of the sport.
Arum’s golden goose and the beloved peoples champion Manny Pacquiao got knocked out by a man who has never knocked him down before. We could say that Pacquiao like Roy Jones Jr and other great legends of the past just aged and was no longer the same, but Marquez who is older than Pacquiao didn’t show any signs of slowing down, in fact, he looked stronger and more powerful than he ever was at the lighter weights. Before the fight not one person felt Marquez would destroy Pacquiao the way he did, some people even said the fight was garbage and it would go to the decision because they thought Marquez was getting older and didn’t have the power to hurt Pacquiao but that KO shook the boxing world and made many people wonder where that power came from. For me and many others this KO win by Marquez over Pacquiao is filled with question marks, but my biggest question is why would Marquez knowingly hire a man who was the biggest whistle blower in the BALCO steroid case? Why taint your victory? Maybe Marquez was so obsessed with beating Pacquiao that he would do anything it takes to win, including working with Angel “Memo” Heredia. We will never know the truth because they never did the random drug testing protocol.
Boxing needs legitimate drug testing, not Floyd Mayweather style 8 week random testing, but VADA year round testing. www.vada-testing.org/
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