If you’re worried that your Mayweather Mosley tickets won’t result in a real scrap like the Pacquiao shambles, don’t; Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his next opponent, welterweight champion Shane Mosley, have agreed to Olympic-style drug tests for their Las Vegas date on May 1, 2010. Many are speculating that the new form of testing will raise the standard for drug testing in boxing. Legal and other representatives from two fighters’ camps met with the national anti-doping agency recently and hammered out the terms of the new deal. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency run a battery of drug tests that are known to be more rigid than those ran by the state athletic commissions, which if anything guarantees a fairer fight, and possibly guarantees that the long-awaited Mayweather Pacquiao fight could one day be a reality. The agreement between Mayweather and Mosley’s camps has been described as a big event that will level the field for athletes. Under the new terms, Mayweather and Mosley will be required to take an unlimited number of random drug tests, both before and after the fight, drawn from both blood and urine samples. All samples will be stored in order that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency will have future access to them. Among the substances to be screened under the plan are human growth hormone and the anabolic “designer” steroid, hetrahydrogestrinone(THG). It was the drug test debate that caused the Mayweather Pacquiao fight to be called off, and this latest development, announced as Mayweather Mosley tickets sell like crazy, proves that Mayweather really is pretty serious about drug testing.
According to Mayweather adviser Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather is the biggest “face” in boxing, and has wanted to enact something like this for a long time. Anyone who wants to fight Mayweather will have to agree to the terms. State athletic commissions usually take urine samples but not blood, which cannot detect muscle-builders like human growth hormone. When the Pacquiao fight fell through after Mayweather demanded blood tests, Pacman’s promoter Bob Arum accused Mayweather of playing head-games. Mosley is a self-confessed steroid user, admitting he once took steroids before the De La Hoya fight in 2003, which Mosley attributes to the coach he used at the time.
The rigid measures employed by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency face a further test though; will the sporting and athletic authorities actually recognize the findings and implement appropriate punishments to boxers who are determined to have used the banned substances? Two-year bans have been mentioned as a deterrent/punishment, and members of the Nevada Athletic Commission have commented that any stricter measures used to prevent drug taking is perfectly OK by them. If you still need to buy those Mayweather v. Mosley tickets you need to move quick and make sure you are there in Vegas on May 1 for this, the biggest fight of 2010.
[...] It was a double anti-climax in a way, when Pacquiao fought Joshua Clottey and Mayweather beat Mosley, despite Mosley rattling Floyd a little before the man got it together and did what only he can – well, only he and Pacquiao. In the meantime we have to think about stuff like Cotto v. Foreman at Yankee Stadium, Khan v. Malignaggi fight tickets and Beranza v. Kennedy tickets, but all the while the Mayweather Pacquiao thing looms in the background. The accusations by Mayweather, that Pacman was using performance-enhancing drugs, seems to have subsided, as Mayweather’s crusade against drug use in the sport continued way past the moment the Pacquiao fight collapsed. In fact, many are saying that Money May’s stance on drug testing could even lead to better regulation and ruling on such iss…. [...]