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The Sport of Boxing and Steroids</font>
Posted by:
John Hively on </font>
01-21-2006</font>.
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By John Hively
Now
that Roy Jones has gone over the hill on us, and quite rapidly at that,
the former champion's achievements and his standing as an all time
great are being assessed. Finely balanced treatments are provided by
various boxing writers concerning his speed, power, ring savvy and
career highlights, and how his skills and achievements likely stack up
against former greats of the squared circle. "Steroids," however, are
rarelyâ€â€if everâ€â€mentioned in the same sentence with "Roy Jones," but
perhaps they should be.
Typically, in these glowing
assessments, there is not even a faint whisper of the fact that Jones
tested positive for steroids in his fight against Richard Hall. It's as
if to speak or write of such a dark and terrible sin would lead to
instantaneous and painful death.
Nor is it ever mentioned that
the name of Roy Jones was linked to the BALCO drug lab scandal, as were
numerous other athletes throughout the world of sports. BALCO produced
a designer drug called THG, which was designed to hide the use of
anabolic steroids.
When Jones signed to fight John Ruiz back in
2003, I already knew he had tested positive for the Hall fight. Five
months after scaling 175 pounds, the light heavyweight champ officially
weighed in at 193, but some said he was 199. He was well muscled, cut
and chiseled to the max.
In the squared circle, as the fighters
anxiously waited for the bell to ring and begin the contest, I wondered
if this was Natural Roy or Artificial Roy. I thought it was possible
for him to gain so much pure muscle naturally in such a short time, but
my twenty plus years of experience at lifting weights aroused in me
suspicion that I might be looking at an artificially enhanced version
of Roy.
I also wondered if there had ever been a Natural Roy.
If he tested positive for Hall, who wasn't all that talented compared
to others Junior had fought, why wouldn't he have used the stuff
against more dangerous opposition, before and afterwards? There's
definitely room for speculation on this issue, especially if the champ
had access to THG or other drugs that hide the use of steroids. Was it
Jones or steroids that broke the nose of Ruiz? Was it Roy or steroids
that had broken Virgil Hill's rib two years prior to the Hall fight?
Was it Jones or steroids that enable him to drop Reggie Johnson with a
punch that could be heard on impact throughout the arena only eleven
months prior to the Hall fight? Where did the man obtain all that speed
and power that made him an invincible superman? And why did it all
suddenly evaporate within a few months after his greatest triumph, that
being the decision over the much larger Ruiz.
With the exception
of Jones, I can't recall any great champion who went from their
superhuman peak to being ordinary from one fight to their next, and
within a matter of months, and without conspicuous injuries or illegal
drug or alcohol problems. Even with those three caveats, I cannot think
of any great fighter who has gone through such a rapid transformation.
In
his first fight after the BALCO scandal broke in September 2003, which
prompted the federal government to shut the company down, Jones
received a hard earned and extremely close decision over Antonio
Tarver. That's the fight in which Joe Calzaghe made the comment that
Jones looked human for a change.
Where was the speed and power
he had showed just eight months earlier against Ruiz? Why couldn't he
break Tarver's nose or ribs, as in the past? Sure, he had shed any
where from eighteen to twenty-four pounds in eight months, and it was
claimed this feat weakened him. On the other hand, I just lost four
pounds in five days without exercise, and Jones had eight months to
lose all of that extra weight he'd packed on for Ruiz. So was it the
weight loss that weakened Jones or something else?
The former
champ was blasted out in two rounds in a rematch with Tarver, and then
he looked listless, slow and powerless in getting starched by Glen
Johnson. In a rematch with Tarver, Jones ran for his life in lasting
the distance. The power, speed and durability he had always exhibited
were gone, disappeared, nearly instantaneouslyâ€â€as if by magic. In
2004, writing for blackathlete.com, Elisa Harrison strongly suggested
the loss of superman's powers might have been linked to BALCO, and she
might very well have been correct.
The BALCO link and the
positive test for steroids in Indiana have spawned a dark cloud of
dubious legitimacy and legality over all of the victories ever achieved
by Jones, with the exception of his last four fights. Those last four
were fought with a fair degree of certainty that Jones was in his
natural state, and not in some artificially enhanced condition, as was
the case during the Hall fight. Because there exists such a striking
contrast between Jones before BALCO was busted by the Feds and the
fighter who emerged just two months afterwards, perhaps it is best to
regard those earlier victories with very large and bold question marks.
This is not without precedent.
Track and field athletes linked
to BALCO have been suspended and their records officially wiped clean
from the record books without ever having tested positive for steroids
or THG.
It would be interesting to discover exactly why and for
how long Jones was linked to BALCO, if only to eliminate uncertainty
such an association gives to the dubious legitimacy of his victories.
Otherwise,
such suspicions may suggest that the ex-champ has only one win, a
decision loss and two knockout defeats (since the government closed
down BALCO), and this is hardly the record of a great fighter.
Jones
is not the only pugilist who has been caught using steroids. Fernando
Vargas, Frans Botha and James Toney have been ensnared. In her article,
Harrison noted that Shane Mosley had also been linked with BALCO.
Richard Hall tested positive for steroids when he fought Roy.
During
a 2003 interview, Indiana State Boxing Commissioner Jacob Hall said
that Jones "was five or six times over an acceptable level" of steroid
use, while Hall "was about ten times above an acceptable level." What's
really bizarre about his description of the two artificial warriors is
that there is "an acceptable level" of steroid use in such a dangerous
sport as boxing.
Steroids enhance a users punching power and
this is quite similar to fighting with loaded gloves, with but some
other big differences. Boxers that are steroid junkies also enhance
their speed artificially, and this allows them to deliver their much
improved punching power with greater velocities, and this makes it that
much more deadly to the recipients of such punches than would normally
be the case. Even more frustrating for purely natural fighters, the
steroid junkies can use their artificial speed to move out of harms way
more so than when they were just products of hard work.
We also
can't forget that steroids enhance the durability of boxers, and so in
this department the steroid junkie has an artificial advantage over
natural pugilists, which means they enter the ring with the equivalent
of body and face armor. After BALCO went down for the count, so too did
Jones rest peacefully at the feet of Tarver and Johnson, his durability
a thing of the past.
Some writers have suggested that steroids
don't really give fighters any big advantage over their naturally
produced opponents, and they point out the fact that a naturally
produced Oscar De La Hoya stopped a souped-up Fernando Vargas in eleven
rounds. What they fail to understand is that Vargas lasted several
rounds longer, and landed quite a few more artificially enhanced
punches to the head and body of his opponent, than would otherwise have
been the case. Oscar likely would have stopped Vargas much sooner, and
the process would have been less painful.
We all know that
James Toney is a highly skilled ring mechanic, expert at avoiding
punches, and then craftily countering his opponents. We also know he
tested positive for steroid use after his fight with John Ruiz. Toney
was faster, stronger, and more durable than he would have been had he
not imbibed that nasty and banned substance called nandrolone.
What
really irritates me is that, for the most part, officials and writers
throughout the world of Fistiania are giving nothing but lip service to
the issue of steroids in boxing. Recently, a boxing writing sneered at
Ruiz for suing James Toney for ten million dollars just because Toney
entered their contest loaded with nandrolone and proceeded to give Ruiz
an artificially enhanced beating over twelve rounds.
Can or
even should a fighter sue another if one of them fights with horseshoes
hidden in their gloves? If so, we should cheer Ruiz's lawsuit, not just
because of the artificial pain and suffering he received, but because
somebody ought to make the use of steroids very painful, at least
financially.
According to Commissioner Hall, the majority of
states don't have any "'drug testing laws.'" So when they do test, they
don't do anything except send the results to the sanctioning boxing
organizations. Referring to the positive test results from the
Jones/Hall fight, the commissioner commented, ""What do the sanctioning
bodies do when they get positive test results? Suspend? Fine? They
didn't in this case. And there's no way you're going to know about
it.'"
If the commissioner is correct, perhaps because of the
big bucks involved, it seems few people really take the issue seriously
at all; but they should, because as the plague of steroids continues to
expand throughout the world of boxing, more and more fighters, sooner
or later, are going to receive permanent injuries. Boxing deaths and
brain damage may become more common as this scourge envelops the fistic
landscape.
So what can be done to reverse this ever growing
plague? A national boxing commission with uniform rules that the states
and sanctioning bodies need to comply with would be of assistance.
Stiff
penalties would help. For example, fighters who test positive for
steroids or drugs used to hide the use of steroids should forfeit their
purses to their opponents. In addition, the offenders should pay an
additional fine equal to his or her winnings, and they should be banned
from boxing anywhere on Earth for two years with no parole for good
behavior. Offenders caught a second time should be fined in the same
way, and they should be banned for life from fighting in the squared
circle, with no possibility of a shortened sentence.
If both
participants are caught using steroids, they should forfeit their
purses, pay fines equal to their winnings to the national commission,
and be banned in the same way outlined above.
Some people may suggest these penalties are overly harsh, especially since boxers allegedly ingest steroids accidentally.
But
it seems that all boxers caught using steroids consume them
accidentally, or so they claim. But these are not little boys consuming
whatever their mommies give them to eat. Professional boxers are grown
men after all. Stiff penalties would ensure that this inane excuse
would be dropped by encouraging our boxing heroes to determine what it
is they are putting into their bodies, rather than allegedly relying
upon the honesty of bad guys determined to sneak steroids into their
daily consumption routines.
It's not uncommon for one sport to
ban a known steroid while another sport continues to make its use
legal. The use of all steroids and steroid maskers should be banned in
all sports. Consequently, a national boxing commission should bring
together all ruling organizations from all sports and insist upon
uniform rules banning these products.
Furthermore, the United
States government should confront the companies producing steroids, as
well as other drugs used to mask their use, the development of which
appears to be ongoing. These companies need to be put out of business,
and these entrepreneurs need to spend ten to twenty years in a nice
comfy cell for their capitalist efforts.
This plague on all
sports should be fought, not only for the safety of boxers, and to
ensure a level playing field for all competitors, but also to defend
the credibility of the heroes of the squared circle.
Ezzard
Charles weighed all of 175 pounds when he invaded the heavyweight
division and stopped contenders Elmer Ray (193 lbs) and Joe Baksi
(220). Archie Moore rarely weighed more than 190 pounds, and he looked
chunky at that weight, but he defeated numerous heavyweights, including
Bob Baker (208) and Nino Valdes (211). Earlier in his career, in the
mid nineteen-forties, Moore defeated heavyweights and he was barely out
of the middleweight class. Light heavyweight Tommy Loughran defeated
numerous quality fighters from the heaviest class. Mickey Walker barely
scaled 170 pounds when he defeated heavyweights such as Aruther DeKuh,
Bearcat Wright, Paolino Uzcudun, and so many others. Harry Greb fought
formidable heavyweights and he typically weighed no more than a 170
pounds. Sugar Ray Robinson was a welterweight fighting middleweights
throughout much of the nineteen-forties. At one time, Henry Armstrong
was a featherweight fighting welterweights. These guys didn't need
extra artificial muscles to defeat heavier fighters. They just needed
God given talent.
Now we have James Toney invading the
heavyweight division hog-fat and testing positive for steroids. How is
it that he is so fast for such a fat guy? Shouldn't he be losing speed
and power from gaining so much excess weight? How is it that he
couldn't stop cruiserweights Vassily Jirov or Sione Asipeli, but he was
able to use Evander Holyfield as a punching bag for nine rounds before
stopping him. The Real Deal had gone twenty-four rounds with a vicious
hitter named Lennox Lewis, and in two fights with Mike Tyson, one of
the greatest punchers of all time, Evander stood right in front of his
opponent, took everything he had to offer, and then stopped him in one
fight and forced him to foul out in another. When Holyfield fought
Toney he was a shot fighter, but neither of his two previous opponents,
Chris Byrd and Hasim Rahman, could put him down, and we know Rahman is
a real hefty banger with both mitts. When Toney tested positive for the
Ruiz fight, it made me wonder about the legitimacy of that earlier
triumph over Evander.
Nowadays, with the development of drugs
that hide the use of steroids, we have a right to be suspicious of the
achievements of boxers who have wonderful physical gifts, especially
those who develop enhanced speed or power all of a sudden, but who
still have no record of steroid use. For the health of the sport and
for the legacies of our fistic heroes, we should always be wary of
steroids and the drugs that hide them.
The time has come for
the people of Fistiania to take the use of steroids quite a bit more
seriously, because the sport is losing its credibility as more and more
fighters may be forced to use the drugs to stay competitive with their
rivals. Somebody is going to get hurt because their opponent used
steroids, so the time to take action is before this happensâ€â€if it has
not already occurred. And I am suspicious that it has already happened.
http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&opt=printable&id= 2888
</td></tr></t></table>
Posted by:
John Hively on </font>
01-21-2006</font>.
</font>
</td>
</tr>
</t></table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="100%"><hr></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="100%">
By John Hively
Now
that Roy Jones has gone over the hill on us, and quite rapidly at that,
the former champion's achievements and his standing as an all time
great are being assessed. Finely balanced treatments are provided by
various boxing writers concerning his speed, power, ring savvy and
career highlights, and how his skills and achievements likely stack up
against former greats of the squared circle. "Steroids," however, are
rarelyâ€â€if everâ€â€mentioned in the same sentence with "Roy Jones," but
perhaps they should be.
Typically, in these glowing
assessments, there is not even a faint whisper of the fact that Jones
tested positive for steroids in his fight against Richard Hall. It's as
if to speak or write of such a dark and terrible sin would lead to
instantaneous and painful death.
Nor is it ever mentioned that
the name of Roy Jones was linked to the BALCO drug lab scandal, as were
numerous other athletes throughout the world of sports. BALCO produced
a designer drug called THG, which was designed to hide the use of
anabolic steroids.
When Jones signed to fight John Ruiz back in
2003, I already knew he had tested positive for the Hall fight. Five
months after scaling 175 pounds, the light heavyweight champ officially
weighed in at 193, but some said he was 199. He was well muscled, cut
and chiseled to the max.
In the squared circle, as the fighters
anxiously waited for the bell to ring and begin the contest, I wondered
if this was Natural Roy or Artificial Roy. I thought it was possible
for him to gain so much pure muscle naturally in such a short time, but
my twenty plus years of experience at lifting weights aroused in me
suspicion that I might be looking at an artificially enhanced version
of Roy.
I also wondered if there had ever been a Natural Roy.
If he tested positive for Hall, who wasn't all that talented compared
to others Junior had fought, why wouldn't he have used the stuff
against more dangerous opposition, before and afterwards? There's
definitely room for speculation on this issue, especially if the champ
had access to THG or other drugs that hide the use of steroids. Was it
Jones or steroids that broke the nose of Ruiz? Was it Roy or steroids
that had broken Virgil Hill's rib two years prior to the Hall fight?
Was it Jones or steroids that enable him to drop Reggie Johnson with a
punch that could be heard on impact throughout the arena only eleven
months prior to the Hall fight? Where did the man obtain all that speed
and power that made him an invincible superman? And why did it all
suddenly evaporate within a few months after his greatest triumph, that
being the decision over the much larger Ruiz.
With the exception
of Jones, I can't recall any great champion who went from their
superhuman peak to being ordinary from one fight to their next, and
within a matter of months, and without conspicuous injuries or illegal
drug or alcohol problems. Even with those three caveats, I cannot think
of any great fighter who has gone through such a rapid transformation.
In
his first fight after the BALCO scandal broke in September 2003, which
prompted the federal government to shut the company down, Jones
received a hard earned and extremely close decision over Antonio
Tarver. That's the fight in which Joe Calzaghe made the comment that
Jones looked human for a change.
Where was the speed and power
he had showed just eight months earlier against Ruiz? Why couldn't he
break Tarver's nose or ribs, as in the past? Sure, he had shed any
where from eighteen to twenty-four pounds in eight months, and it was
claimed this feat weakened him. On the other hand, I just lost four
pounds in five days without exercise, and Jones had eight months to
lose all of that extra weight he'd packed on for Ruiz. So was it the
weight loss that weakened Jones or something else?
The former
champ was blasted out in two rounds in a rematch with Tarver, and then
he looked listless, slow and powerless in getting starched by Glen
Johnson. In a rematch with Tarver, Jones ran for his life in lasting
the distance. The power, speed and durability he had always exhibited
were gone, disappeared, nearly instantaneouslyâ€â€as if by magic. In
2004, writing for blackathlete.com, Elisa Harrison strongly suggested
the loss of superman's powers might have been linked to BALCO, and she
might very well have been correct.
The BALCO link and the
positive test for steroids in Indiana have spawned a dark cloud of
dubious legitimacy and legality over all of the victories ever achieved
by Jones, with the exception of his last four fights. Those last four
were fought with a fair degree of certainty that Jones was in his
natural state, and not in some artificially enhanced condition, as was
the case during the Hall fight. Because there exists such a striking
contrast between Jones before BALCO was busted by the Feds and the
fighter who emerged just two months afterwards, perhaps it is best to
regard those earlier victories with very large and bold question marks.
This is not without precedent.
Track and field athletes linked
to BALCO have been suspended and their records officially wiped clean
from the record books without ever having tested positive for steroids
or THG.
It would be interesting to discover exactly why and for
how long Jones was linked to BALCO, if only to eliminate uncertainty
such an association gives to the dubious legitimacy of his victories.
Otherwise,
such suspicions may suggest that the ex-champ has only one win, a
decision loss and two knockout defeats (since the government closed
down BALCO), and this is hardly the record of a great fighter.
Jones
is not the only pugilist who has been caught using steroids. Fernando
Vargas, Frans Botha and James Toney have been ensnared. In her article,
Harrison noted that Shane Mosley had also been linked with BALCO.
Richard Hall tested positive for steroids when he fought Roy.
During
a 2003 interview, Indiana State Boxing Commissioner Jacob Hall said
that Jones "was five or six times over an acceptable level" of steroid
use, while Hall "was about ten times above an acceptable level." What's
really bizarre about his description of the two artificial warriors is
that there is "an acceptable level" of steroid use in such a dangerous
sport as boxing.
Steroids enhance a users punching power and
this is quite similar to fighting with loaded gloves, with but some
other big differences. Boxers that are steroid junkies also enhance
their speed artificially, and this allows them to deliver their much
improved punching power with greater velocities, and this makes it that
much more deadly to the recipients of such punches than would normally
be the case. Even more frustrating for purely natural fighters, the
steroid junkies can use their artificial speed to move out of harms way
more so than when they were just products of hard work.
We also
can't forget that steroids enhance the durability of boxers, and so in
this department the steroid junkie has an artificial advantage over
natural pugilists, which means they enter the ring with the equivalent
of body and face armor. After BALCO went down for the count, so too did
Jones rest peacefully at the feet of Tarver and Johnson, his durability
a thing of the past.
Some writers have suggested that steroids
don't really give fighters any big advantage over their naturally
produced opponents, and they point out the fact that a naturally
produced Oscar De La Hoya stopped a souped-up Fernando Vargas in eleven
rounds. What they fail to understand is that Vargas lasted several
rounds longer, and landed quite a few more artificially enhanced
punches to the head and body of his opponent, than would otherwise have
been the case. Oscar likely would have stopped Vargas much sooner, and
the process would have been less painful.
We all know that
James Toney is a highly skilled ring mechanic, expert at avoiding
punches, and then craftily countering his opponents. We also know he
tested positive for steroid use after his fight with John Ruiz. Toney
was faster, stronger, and more durable than he would have been had he
not imbibed that nasty and banned substance called nandrolone.
What
really irritates me is that, for the most part, officials and writers
throughout the world of Fistiania are giving nothing but lip service to
the issue of steroids in boxing. Recently, a boxing writing sneered at
Ruiz for suing James Toney for ten million dollars just because Toney
entered their contest loaded with nandrolone and proceeded to give Ruiz
an artificially enhanced beating over twelve rounds.
Can or
even should a fighter sue another if one of them fights with horseshoes
hidden in their gloves? If so, we should cheer Ruiz's lawsuit, not just
because of the artificial pain and suffering he received, but because
somebody ought to make the use of steroids very painful, at least
financially.
According to Commissioner Hall, the majority of
states don't have any "'drug testing laws.'" So when they do test, they
don't do anything except send the results to the sanctioning boxing
organizations. Referring to the positive test results from the
Jones/Hall fight, the commissioner commented, ""What do the sanctioning
bodies do when they get positive test results? Suspend? Fine? They
didn't in this case. And there's no way you're going to know about
it.'"
If the commissioner is correct, perhaps because of the
big bucks involved, it seems few people really take the issue seriously
at all; but they should, because as the plague of steroids continues to
expand throughout the world of boxing, more and more fighters, sooner
or later, are going to receive permanent injuries. Boxing deaths and
brain damage may become more common as this scourge envelops the fistic
landscape.
So what can be done to reverse this ever growing
plague? A national boxing commission with uniform rules that the states
and sanctioning bodies need to comply with would be of assistance.
Stiff
penalties would help. For example, fighters who test positive for
steroids or drugs used to hide the use of steroids should forfeit their
purses to their opponents. In addition, the offenders should pay an
additional fine equal to his or her winnings, and they should be banned
from boxing anywhere on Earth for two years with no parole for good
behavior. Offenders caught a second time should be fined in the same
way, and they should be banned for life from fighting in the squared
circle, with no possibility of a shortened sentence.
If both
participants are caught using steroids, they should forfeit their
purses, pay fines equal to their winnings to the national commission,
and be banned in the same way outlined above.
Some people may suggest these penalties are overly harsh, especially since boxers allegedly ingest steroids accidentally.
But
it seems that all boxers caught using steroids consume them
accidentally, or so they claim. But these are not little boys consuming
whatever their mommies give them to eat. Professional boxers are grown
men after all. Stiff penalties would ensure that this inane excuse
would be dropped by encouraging our boxing heroes to determine what it
is they are putting into their bodies, rather than allegedly relying
upon the honesty of bad guys determined to sneak steroids into their
daily consumption routines.
It's not uncommon for one sport to
ban a known steroid while another sport continues to make its use
legal. The use of all steroids and steroid maskers should be banned in
all sports. Consequently, a national boxing commission should bring
together all ruling organizations from all sports and insist upon
uniform rules banning these products.
Furthermore, the United
States government should confront the companies producing steroids, as
well as other drugs used to mask their use, the development of which
appears to be ongoing. These companies need to be put out of business,
and these entrepreneurs need to spend ten to twenty years in a nice
comfy cell for their capitalist efforts.
This plague on all
sports should be fought, not only for the safety of boxers, and to
ensure a level playing field for all competitors, but also to defend
the credibility of the heroes of the squared circle.
Ezzard
Charles weighed all of 175 pounds when he invaded the heavyweight
division and stopped contenders Elmer Ray (193 lbs) and Joe Baksi
(220). Archie Moore rarely weighed more than 190 pounds, and he looked
chunky at that weight, but he defeated numerous heavyweights, including
Bob Baker (208) and Nino Valdes (211). Earlier in his career, in the
mid nineteen-forties, Moore defeated heavyweights and he was barely out
of the middleweight class. Light heavyweight Tommy Loughran defeated
numerous quality fighters from the heaviest class. Mickey Walker barely
scaled 170 pounds when he defeated heavyweights such as Aruther DeKuh,
Bearcat Wright, Paolino Uzcudun, and so many others. Harry Greb fought
formidable heavyweights and he typically weighed no more than a 170
pounds. Sugar Ray Robinson was a welterweight fighting middleweights
throughout much of the nineteen-forties. At one time, Henry Armstrong
was a featherweight fighting welterweights. These guys didn't need
extra artificial muscles to defeat heavier fighters. They just needed
God given talent.
Now we have James Toney invading the
heavyweight division hog-fat and testing positive for steroids. How is
it that he is so fast for such a fat guy? Shouldn't he be losing speed
and power from gaining so much excess weight? How is it that he
couldn't stop cruiserweights Vassily Jirov or Sione Asipeli, but he was
able to use Evander Holyfield as a punching bag for nine rounds before
stopping him. The Real Deal had gone twenty-four rounds with a vicious
hitter named Lennox Lewis, and in two fights with Mike Tyson, one of
the greatest punchers of all time, Evander stood right in front of his
opponent, took everything he had to offer, and then stopped him in one
fight and forced him to foul out in another. When Holyfield fought
Toney he was a shot fighter, but neither of his two previous opponents,
Chris Byrd and Hasim Rahman, could put him down, and we know Rahman is
a real hefty banger with both mitts. When Toney tested positive for the
Ruiz fight, it made me wonder about the legitimacy of that earlier
triumph over Evander.
Nowadays, with the development of drugs
that hide the use of steroids, we have a right to be suspicious of the
achievements of boxers who have wonderful physical gifts, especially
those who develop enhanced speed or power all of a sudden, but who
still have no record of steroid use. For the health of the sport and
for the legacies of our fistic heroes, we should always be wary of
steroids and the drugs that hide them.
The time has come for
the people of Fistiania to take the use of steroids quite a bit more
seriously, because the sport is losing its credibility as more and more
fighters may be forced to use the drugs to stay competitive with their
rivals. Somebody is going to get hurt because their opponent used
steroids, so the time to take action is before this happensâ€â€if it has
not already occurred. And I am suspicious that it has already happened.
http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&opt=printable&id= 2888
</td></tr></t></table>