Boxing’s PED Crisis Rears Its Ugly Head — Again

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media. When most people think of boxing’s alphabet-soup organizations, the letter groupings that come most readily to mind represent such world sanctioning bodies as the WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO. However, the familiar standbys have been joined in the public consciousness lately by VADA, WADA and USADA. Those are anti-doping agencies, and the renewed frequency of references to them in sports stories is not only disturbing but suggests that the crisis involving performance-enhancing drugs in the 1990s and 2000s is making a determined comeback. The clean-up so many people wanted to believe had been accomplished in recent years appears to be like the typical teenager’s bedroom; mom can demand that the mess be tidied up to House Beautiful standards — and maybe it is for a while — but before too long, dirty clothes are strewn everywhere and it’s the same old disaster zone. A raft of high-profile cases involving Olympic athletes, baseball players and, yes, fighters lends credence to the creeping suspicion that the plague of PEDs has not been cured but was merely in temporary remission. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the most expensive ever staged with a price tag of $50 billion, was a veritable orgy of violations involving Russian competitors, possibly with that country’s government offering its tacit or outright approval to a new generation of juicers. Eyebrows, perhaps not unexpectedly, were raised when Russian heavyweight Alexander Povetkin — who, it should be noted, was the super heavyweight gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics — tested positive for Meldonium, leading to his May 21 challenge of WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in Moscow being postponed indefinitely. Meldonium, which was added to the list of banned substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency on Jan. 1, has properties that result in increased blood flow, which can enhance athletic performance. Australia’s Lucas Browne won the WBA’s “regular” heavyweight title in a 10th-round stoppage of Ruslan Chagaev on March 5 in Grozny, Chechyna, but he was stripped of that recognition when both his “A” and “B” samples tested positive for Clenbuterol, a substance long favored by bodybuilders to lose fat and build lean muscle. Clenbuterol also is used on cattle and racehorses in some countries, although it is strictly prohibited in the United States and by member countries in the European Union. Clenbuterol also is the scruffy passenger that has unfortunately hitched a ride with WBC super featherweight champion Francisco “El Bandido” Vargas (23-0-1, 17 KOs) as he prepares for his June 4 title defense against three-time former world titlist Orlando Salito (43-13-3, 30 KOs) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California — a likely slugfest that will be televised via HBO Boxing After Dark. Vargas is an all-action Mexican fighter whose dethroning of Japan’s Takashi Miura on Nov. 21 was so riveting that it was named the 2015 “Fight of the Year” by several media outlets, including the Boxing Writers Association of America, which will recognize him at its 91st annual Awards Dinner on June 24 in New York City. There are high hopes that Vargas can go back-to-back in that department against the always-willing-to-mix-it-up Salido. Eric Gomez, the matchmaker for Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Vargas, said Vargas-Salido is “sure to be a candidate for Fight of the Year” — an idea seconded by Vargas’ manager, Ralph Heredia. “Not only as a manager, but as a fan, it’s definitely going to be a candidate for Fight of the Year,” Heredia said with unabashed enthusiasm. Vargas echoed those sentiments. “This definitely could be a candidate for Fight of the Year,” he said. “I have always said I wanted to fight the best, and I consider Orlando Salido one of the best. Our styles match very good in the ring. It’s going to make for a very exciting fight.” Heredia’s …

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