Who was the earliest world champion you are convinced used PEDs?

Aaron Pryor ;-)

Edit: seriously don’t know but interested in legit feedback

 

Depends on how you define a PED. Fernando Pacheco, Ali's doctor admitted to injected him with all types of stuff to enhance his performance.

 

The only injections I've heard of were cortisone shots for the bursitis in his hands; what other stuff was he injected with?

 

Any Heavyweight Champion from the 70's at that stage it wasn't really known or illegal.

 

Ken Norton, Sonny Liston, or Cleveland Williams could've been the first. They all had extremely impressive, though not downright unnatural, physiques and were fighting at the time where steroids started to leak into sports. Do remember that boxers do not train for hypertrophy, so physiques must be judged differently.


For a brief history lesson in steroids, as I'm a fan of bodybuilding, here you go:

Late 1930s: Scientist from Switzerland accidentally creates the first "steroid". It's basically raw animal testosterone.

Late 1950s: steroids leak into bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is still only a niche sport, so nobody really cares.

1960s: Powerlifters discover steroids, so do some football players.

1970s: most sports have already discovered steroids, and new types of steroids have been invented to be more safe and more potent, such as dianabol

 

So Foreman was anabolically drugged?

 

Personally, I'd need more than so-and-so looked huge or well-built ... sometimes, it's just part of the genetic crapshoot that gifts some with great physiques and muscles that respond well to training. If we have photos of many of these guys before they became fighters and they're already muscular, can we still blame steroids for their development? Tyson was already 200 lbs as a teenager (though I think it's safe to say he eventually did start using by the Holyfield fights - more of a crutch at that point, as he had largely abandoned the rigorous training that had been part of his life for his early career).

Not even going into other PEDs that go beyond creating hypertrophy - though I'd agree that Pryor was on something, especially during the Arguello fights. That "second wind" in the first fight was a little too dramatic ...

 

Depends on what you consider PEDs. That goal post has moved back and forth over the years. Fighters used cocaine injections for broken hands as early as the 1910s. Dempsey's ex wife accused him of using cocaine as a stimulant before fights which she said accounted for his early blitzing rushes. There are other examples Im sure.

 

Well it is known that when Coca Cola came out it was a cure all that gave plenty vim, vigor and vitality and it was no secret

 

I should add that cocaine was basically legal until 1922. It was regulated after 1915 but still easily attainable.

 

As mentioned by others, various "PED's" were always around in one form or another.

If it was being used as another word for steroids, I don't know who the first one to use them was, but I'm of the opinion that Mackie Shilstone used them on Mike Spinks in advance of Holmes I, and that successful usage is what "mainstreamed" them in the sport.

It's also worth noting that steroids weren't banned in the sport then so, of course, there was no testing for them (and tests of the day were rudimentary at best, anyways).

 

Question: Do you think Steve Reeves used steroids? He claimed to be completely natural, which to me means he at least had knowledge of he existence of steroids. Looking at his body vs the modern bodybuilders is amazing....he looks thin compared to the behemoths at 1st century bodybuilding competitions.