Much has been said about Manny Pacquiao’s alleged drug use and his shocking wins that came as a result. According to Pacquiao’s main accusers, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Floyd Mayweather Sr, Oscar De La Hoya, and Richard Schaefer, these drugs gave Pacquiao superhuman strength and even allowed him to take the punches of bigger men.
The proposed fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather has been unofficially declared dead as Pacquiao has opted to sue Mayweather and his ilk for defamation. For the majority of fans, Mayweather effectively killed potentially one of the greatest fights ever by baselessly and publically accusing Pacquiao of being a cheater.
Other fans feel that Mayweather has made a reasonable request and that the Mayweathers and De La Hoya are correct in their suggestions that Pacquiao used performance-enhancing drugs to get ahead. Is this all much ado about nothing? Was a great fight killed because of a non-issue?
The true effects of performance-enhancing drugs on boxers need to be revealed and discussed based on real examples and not simple speculation.
Interestingly, fighters that have actually been caught using steroids or other performance enhancers are usually fighters with very mediocre careers and/or several knockout losses to their names. Nevertheless, to be fair, it should be noted that high profile fighters like Fernando Vargas and Shane Mosley were also caught using steroids or other performance enhancers.
Vargas looked physically better than he ever has in his life and even in the prefight interview with Larry Merchant before he faced Oscar De La Hoya, Vargas stated, “A Mexican is not supposed to look like this.” The over-hyped De La Hoya later knocked Vargas out that night.
Tommy Morrison is another fighter that used steroids per his own admission and Riddick Bowe accused Andrew Golota of this back in 1996. In spite of claims that steroid use allows fighters to resist punches better, Golota and Morrison have both been knocked out many times in their careers.
Shane Mosley was arguably under the effects of performance enhancers during his razor thin win over Oscar de la Hoya in 2003 and his loss to Winky Wright in 2004. Mosley looked extremely mediocre in both fights and seemed to struggle to throw punches in combination.
Is it possible that weightlifting is negating any benefits that performance enhancers might give to a boxer? Most old school trainers frown upon weight lifting for boxers because it tends to stiffen them up. Even Shane Mosley’s father did not agree with Mosley lifting weights so much and they often clashed regarding this since before Mosley’s move to the junior middleweight division.
Mosley and Vargas both looked stiff and robotic in bouts during their steroid use. Mosley looked extremely lethargic and borderline shot in his losses to Wright. He looked physically a mess and even claimed to have a physical problem at the end of one of those fights stating he felt like he had a “monkey on his back”.
Although steroids and performance enhancers may aid a fighter in training, the fighters’ performance in the ring is not necessarily enhanced. Boxing is different from cycling and baseball. There are certain characteristics in boxing that a fighter can only be born with.
People go on and on about Pacquiao looking muscular, as if that was some indicator of steroid abuse. A nice body has never been an indicator of punching power in the sport of boxing. Rail thin fighters like Alexis Arguello, Michael Carbajal, Tommy Hearns, and Diego Corrales are some of the hardest punchers to ever grace a boxing ring.
All the steroids and performance enhancers in the world would not convert Paulie Malignaggi and Luis Collazo into big punchers.
The effectiveness of steroids and performance enhancers in boxing might possibly be exaggerated. Has there ever been a documented case of a boxer having an unprecedented sensational performance after using enhancers?
Perhaps one of the more revealing moments was when James Toney tested positive for steroids after beating John Ruiz. Toney looked like a fat slob during that match and basically won by out boxing the plodding Ruiz. Toney’s punching power was not a factor in the fight as he won on skill for a decision. When Toney beat Evander Holyfield by knockout, he was in sensational physical form.
Toney was muscular, in awesome shape, and showed great speed and power. Toney’s performance was widely lauded as sensational and amazing against a much larger Holyfield especially since Toney was a former middleweight. However, Toney did not test positive for any steroids after the Holyfield fight.
In other words, Toney performed better while not on steroids than when caught for steroids. Some will say that he was “probably” using steroids before but had never been caught. But if that’s the case, why do most of these boxers coincidentally get caught usually after a mediocre performance (usually a loss) and not after a sensational performance?
Interestingly, after the Balco scandal ended, and Mosley was supposedly no longer using performance-enhancing supplements, he seemed fresher in the ring, was throwing fluid combinations once again, and pulled off one of the more successful comebacks culminating in his demolition of Antonio Margarito in early 2009.
Mosley’s worst performances ironically occurred during his use of the Balco products for performance enhancement.
So, as non-politically correct as it may seem, one has to ask if these performance enhancers are really giving boxers an edge in the ring. The evidence would actually seem to indicate otherwise.
In baseball, one can analyze the performance of the players that used performance enhancers and easily observe a rise in performance. Why is this not the case with boxers?
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