This is a really interesting question, I'd like to see some answers. I think it probably mirrored PED use in other sports like football, basketball, etc. When did it begin to become widespread? If we're talking about anabolic steroids, I'm thinking probably in the 70s or late 60s.
There was an allegation that Barney Malone was on Cocaine in the 1800's. They said that this made him immune to pain and utterly relentless. There's no proof though.
Probably. And it's about time they brought back wrapping fists in strips of rawhide instead of these poofter gloves!
i remember someone talking about lamotta taking some early version of a steroid. I think the source was quotes from his wife.
He certainly fought in the era when testosterone injections were becoming popular and available and being marketed in the USA. The mid-late-1940s the drug was being advertised and promoted for a variety of reasons, mostly to 'rejuvenate' and enhance 'virility', and anabolic steroids are derivatives of testosterone. Some boxers must have been getting testosterone shots in the 1950s, and by the 1960s it was commonly used in all sports.
it depends what counts as a ped tbh, if alcohol counts then that goes back to bareknuckle days. makes sense.
Bob Hazelton started taking steroids after he lost to George Foreman in 1969. Hazelton was tall but very thin for that Foreman fight. So, in Hazelton's case, he boxed on steroids in the mid to late 1970s. After the Foreman loss in 1969, Hazelton fought once in 1972, and then he came back in 1975 and went on a run using steroids against guys with losing records. Contrary to what the article says, he was never close to getting a title shot. Hazelton also wasn't unbeaten entering the Foreman fight. He'd lost nearly every fight he competed in before that. (The article was written before Boxrec existed.) http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-01-01/sports/8902220419_1_bob-hazelton-bench-cyndy