Pacman is to blame for fight cancellation

So the Manny Pacquiao v Floyd Mayweather jnr bout is off.

The stumbling block has been Mayweather’s insistence to adhere to the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s methods of testing. Usada is one of many national anti-doping agencies who are members of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), who lead the fight against drugs in sport.

Wada requires that athletes submit urine and blood samples before and after their events – and the tests can be conducted randomly. The blood can reveal use of certain performance-enhancing drugs not detectable in urine samples. Furthermore, blood samples allow for testers to create what they call a biological passport for all athletes, thereby allowing them to detect illegal drug use with more ease.

The blood samples and also be stored for several years and retested with new methods in the future, which could allow them to find a substance that may be currently undetectable.

Every Olympic athlete must give their consent to submit both urine and blood samples if they want to compete at the Games (as well as many other international and national events). The 15 athletes who represented the Philippines at the 2008 Beijing Olympics would have been subjected to the same rules (Philippines is also a member of Wada, by the way). As a matter of interest, Pacquiao was the flagbearer for the team, although he didn’t compete there and therefore wouldn’t have undergone any of the tests.

The importance of random testing is that it allows testers to get to the athletes out of competition, which is when drug cheats are more likely to be using illegal substances. There is no reason why Pacquiao should be exempt from the rule of random testing.

Pacman, the only boxer to have won world titles at seven weights, has complained that submitting a blood sample before the fight would weaken him.

One has to assume that Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt would have given blood samples before some of his record-breaking feats of the past two years. He certainly didn’t complain about being weakened. The same is true of many other world sporting heroes, including Michael Phelps and Roger Federer. Admittedly, Lance Armstrong had a little whinge about the timing of the testing during last year’s Tour de France, but he got on with the job.

As it happens, I spoke to an anti-doping doctor before the Beijing Olympics asking him if taking blood would weaken an athlete, and he replied that it wouldn’t because the sample was too small (a few millilitres, apparently).

And if Pacman is going to be weakened by giving the blood sample, then so too will Mayweather!

I have also seen reports stating that Pacquiao is superstitious about giving blood too close before a fight. Tough luck – these are the rules to combat drug cheating, and it’s far more important to fight dopers than it is to uphold one boxer’s personal belief.

I can’t see any logical reason for Pacman’s refusal to use Usada, except that professional boxing is one sport that is not a signatory to Wada (apart from countries signing up, sporting federations are also individual members of Wada). If the various organisations that litter professional boxing were all signatories, Pacman wouldn’t have a choice.

Wada demands a two-year ban for testing positive for steroids, but boxers like James Toney and Roy Jones jnr have escaped with relative wrist-slaps for steroid infringements. So far, no professional boxer I know of has ever been suspended for two years for such an offence.

Quite honestly, I applaud Mayweather for demanding Usada supervision (because it’s time for professional boxing to enter the 21st century), and I blame Pacquiao for scuppering the fight.

The sad thing is that I believe Pacquiao would have won the fight.

This is potentially the biggest bout of all time and boxing fans deserve it. Pacquiao should not have the right to wreck it.