Andre ward's involvent with Victor Conte ( BALCO scandal. )

June, 2011

BT: What do you think about Floyd wanting Manny to take additional Olympic-style tests? Good? Bad? Don't care?

AW: I think Floyd is on to something. That's kind of a reoccurring theme right now, the fact that everybody is saying that all fighters should take the tests. It's not only great for the fans and people to know, but you're talking about people's lives. If somebody is taking something or doing something that's not right, and they beat a fighter or beat them up, that's just not right, so I think it should get implemented, but getting that information that I just got recently about how much it costs, something is gonna have to give if that's going to be implemented as a whole.

BT: You said you got some information on how much it costs to do Olympic-style testing for a fight?

AW: I was able to do a little research and kind of dig a little bit deeper and actually reach out to the United States Anti-Doping Agency to see how much something like that would cost and the price is staggering. It costs $50,000 to $100,000 for 7 to 8 weeks to do random testing for both fighters.

BT: Wow. Really?

AW: That's what I recently found out because that's something that I want to implement in my fight with Carl Froch, whether he wants to do it or not. That's not something that we've talked about because we're still doing our research, but when it costs that much, it's kind of hard because fighters already have a lot coming out of their purses in many different ways, from sanctioning fees, to managerial fees, to getting taxed on it and so forth, so it's hard to pay that kind of money unless you're making mega-dollars like Floyd and Manny. So I don't know, unless there's some help somewhere, I don't know how fighters are going to foot that bill.

BT: So you're looking to help bring about change to the sport by shedding more light on the subject of improved drug testing policies?

AW: I wanted to take things a step further and impelement it, not just talk about it, and be one of the first to actually do it outside of Floyd Mayweather. I believe Carl is a clean fighter, but I just think that with a fight of this magnitude, it would be great for the sport to implement something like Olympic-style drug testing. The goal is to go through with it even if Carl doesn't want to, but again, the cost could be an issue, so we'll see.

BT: It's funny you mention that because I believe the governor of Nevada just signed into law a bill that will help pay for drug tests for boxers and MMA fighters. You might want to look into that.

AW: That would be awesome. I think that's beautiful. Again, this is something that I came up with on my own, you know, as far as doing the extra research. We actually called and reached out to them, me and my publicist Julie Goldsticker, who works hand in hand with USA Boxing, so she had a contact and we called them. I think if something like that can happen, where the price can be offset or there can be some help, man, if we can implement that, I think it has to be done, especially in this day and age with rumors going around and people wondering and guessing. That way nobody has to wonder and nobody has to guess. Everybody knows.

Also from 2011

“I think it is [necessary for boxing]. I would welcome it. I think it’s great. That way there is no confusion about who’s playing on an even playing field. This is a dangerous sport. You hear whispers about guys, what they’re doing and not doing. You have to figure out who’s going to pay for it, but once we get past that - I think it should be something that’s implemented in every big fight,” Ward said.

Don't forget that he said in late 2009 or early 2010 he wanted to do OSDT soon to prove he was clean after people raised eyebrows after finding out he worked with Conte for the Kessler fight too.

It was supposedly meant to happen for the Green, Abraham, and Froch but never did. And we all know what happened when E-Rod asked him to do it, which Ward's former bud Victor Conte offered to foot the bill for. Conte was still working with numerous fighters in Ward's gym at the time too.

Like Super Hans said, Google 'Why is Andre Ward So Testy About Testing'