What Fairness Is
Charges continue from Floyd Mayweather Junior’s camp that Manny Pacquiao has achieved his ring success as a result of using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, who is representing Mayweather, has demanded that the fighters be subjected to Olympic style testing by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. The USADA should act according to statements in its mission—to protect athletes and treat them fairly—and publicly state they will not conduct testing for this superbout.
The very definition of fairness is impartiality and neutrality, so if one fight is scrutinized, high profile or not, then what protection is there for the professional fighters of thousands of matches that happen around the world annually? Mayweather deserves no more protection than the 8-and-7 journeyman. It’s not just megafights, but every fight that needs to be fair.
Perhaps more than any other sport, the fat cats of boxing have been guilty of making phenomenal payouts and doling extra benefits to its active stars, but have left the vast majority of its more obscure (as well as retired) fighters to hustle together a livable wage, without health insurance or pension. The USADA’s compliance with Golden Boy’s one-time request for blood tests is yet another example of privileged treatment, which Mayweather and his promoters may indeed believe they’re entitled to.
Travis Tygart, USADA's CEO, told the Los Angeles Times, "Testing will not interfere with the competition. It's unreasonable to believe that it would." He also said that Pacquiao’s demand that he not be tested within 30 days of the fight would be "unacceptable to any effective anti-doping program." However, shouldn’t any effective anti-doping program also have to implement its testing in conjunction with strict due process? Is it common practice for the USADA to use its high-tech services after every simple accusation or rumor? That seems like a costly enterprise for everyone involved. I wonder if the unknown pro fighter for a thousand-dollar purse in Queens who demands testing of his opponent will get the same attention from USADA as Mayweather has. Without effective screening of cases, the USADA would be squandering millions in government grant money that currently funds that doping agency's programs.
Athletes need to be protected not just by drug testing, but a complete investigative process. They should not be subject to arbitrary accusations of doping without reasonable cause. And inquiries can't be limited to big-money athletes and big-stage events. (Should we drug test only NBA teams in position to make the playoffs following the All-Star break?) It’s simple: boxing can’t (indeed, no sport can) afford a special instance of fairness. If it’s fairness we’re after, then it has to be fairness across the board.
The fact is that illegal performance enhancing substances are a problem across most, if not all, professional sports. Headlines about Marion Jones, Roger Clemens, James Toney, BALCO and now Dr. Anthony Galea, whose clients have included Tiger Woods and Olympian Donovan Bailey, make the news fairly regularly now. If the USADA is truly interested in being the primary testing agency in professional and amateur American sports, then it needs to assert its expertise with uniformity and rigor. Mr. Tygart should make a public statement that the USADA is interested in contributing to a drug-free culture in boxing, but testing specific cases according to the whims of athletes of highest notoriety contradicts the agency's very mission.
Despite the continual and vehement claims against Pacquiao for using human growth hormone and other performance enhancing substances, none of them seem to be soundly based. There have been no witnesses to such infractions, no evidence found, no links made to warrant such claims. And even if there were, according to the principles of due process, Pacquiao would still be, and is, as of now, innocent. Without a blood-testing system in place for boxers at the moment, it should, at the very least, require some probable cause.
To give Floyd Jr. the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the importance and hype of the anticipated bout has suddenly jolted a unanimous sense of justice in the Golden Boy camp. If Mayweather and crew are genuinely concerned about fair play in boxing, I suggest they expand their scrutiny from one match to every match; perhaps Mayweather should, instead of tossing hundred-dollar bills to crowds at public venues, donate that money to youth and athlete education about performance enhancing drugs. In fact, it would be a great lift to boxing and the world of sports if both fighters committed a significant amount from the purse of their historic fight toward those efforts.
If there's a problem with the Nevada testing, then it is Nevada that needs to be pressured, not the fighters. The standards may fall short of what boxing and its fans need, but such standards have been good enough for the forty bouts Floyd Mayweather has entered and won since he turned pro in 1996; suddenly they're not good enough for a fight that Floyd has been bragging he will win with no problem. Do I think Pacquiao is using illegal substances? With the culture of drug use among professional athletes, sadly, it seems anything is possible. And all of us who care about the highest level of competition should demand both excellence and fairness from athletes, officials, governing bodies (especially), and media. All I know is no one in this case is making accusations in the interest of the integrity of the sport.
The very definition of fairness is impartiality and neutrality, so if one fight is scrutinized, high profile or not, then what protection is there for the professional fighters of thousands of matches that happen around the world annually? Mayweather deserves no more protection than the 8-and-7 journeyman. It’s not just megafights, but every fight that needs to be fair.
Perhaps more than any other sport, the fat cats of boxing have been guilty of making phenomenal payouts and doling extra benefits to its active stars, but have left the vast majority of its more obscure (as well as retired) fighters to hustle together a livable wage, without health insurance or pension. The USADA’s compliance with Golden Boy’s one-time request for blood tests is yet another example of privileged treatment, which Mayweather and his promoters may indeed believe they’re entitled to.
Travis Tygart, USADA's CEO, told the Los Angeles Times, "Testing will not interfere with the competition. It's unreasonable to believe that it would." He also said that Pacquiao’s demand that he not be tested within 30 days of the fight would be "unacceptable to any effective anti-doping program." However, shouldn’t any effective anti-doping program also have to implement its testing in conjunction with strict due process? Is it common practice for the USADA to use its high-tech services after every simple accusation or rumor? That seems like a costly enterprise for everyone involved. I wonder if the unknown pro fighter for a thousand-dollar purse in Queens who demands testing of his opponent will get the same attention from USADA as Mayweather has. Without effective screening of cases, the USADA would be squandering millions in government grant money that currently funds that doping agency's programs.
Athletes need to be protected not just by drug testing, but a complete investigative process. They should not be subject to arbitrary accusations of doping without reasonable cause. And inquiries can't be limited to big-money athletes and big-stage events. (Should we drug test only NBA teams in position to make the playoffs following the All-Star break?) It’s simple: boxing can’t (indeed, no sport can) afford a special instance of fairness. If it’s fairness we’re after, then it has to be fairness across the board.
The fact is that illegal performance enhancing substances are a problem across most, if not all, professional sports. Headlines about Marion Jones, Roger Clemens, James Toney, BALCO and now Dr. Anthony Galea, whose clients have included Tiger Woods and Olympian Donovan Bailey, make the news fairly regularly now. If the USADA is truly interested in being the primary testing agency in professional and amateur American sports, then it needs to assert its expertise with uniformity and rigor. Mr. Tygart should make a public statement that the USADA is interested in contributing to a drug-free culture in boxing, but testing specific cases according to the whims of athletes of highest notoriety contradicts the agency's very mission.
Despite the continual and vehement claims against Pacquiao for using human growth hormone and other performance enhancing substances, none of them seem to be soundly based. There have been no witnesses to such infractions, no evidence found, no links made to warrant such claims. And even if there were, according to the principles of due process, Pacquiao would still be, and is, as of now, innocent. Without a blood-testing system in place for boxers at the moment, it should, at the very least, require some probable cause.
To give Floyd Jr. the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the importance and hype of the anticipated bout has suddenly jolted a unanimous sense of justice in the Golden Boy camp. If Mayweather and crew are genuinely concerned about fair play in boxing, I suggest they expand their scrutiny from one match to every match; perhaps Mayweather should, instead of tossing hundred-dollar bills to crowds at public venues, donate that money to youth and athlete education about performance enhancing drugs. In fact, it would be a great lift to boxing and the world of sports if both fighters committed a significant amount from the purse of their historic fight toward those efforts.
If there's a problem with the Nevada testing, then it is Nevada that needs to be pressured, not the fighters. The standards may fall short of what boxing and its fans need, but such standards have been good enough for the forty bouts Floyd Mayweather has entered and won since he turned pro in 1996; suddenly they're not good enough for a fight that Floyd has been bragging he will win with no problem. Do I think Pacquiao is using illegal substances? With the culture of drug use among professional athletes, sadly, it seems anything is possible. And all of us who care about the highest level of competition should demand both excellence and fairness from athletes, officials, governing bodies (especially), and media. All I know is no one in this case is making accusations in the interest of the integrity of the sport.
posted by Patrick at
10:20 PM
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