Since the dawn of boxing, losing fighters have claimed they were drugged by an opponent/promoter/bettor in order to make them lose. I'm curious about cases that were confirmed, any times that it actually happened. So far, I've found one (maybe): https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1977/9/19/breakfast-of-champions The article is fascinating reading about the early days of amphetamine/anabolic steroid use in athletics. Apparently anabolics were pioneered in part by a doctor who was treating the 1960 US Olympic team. Let me know if you've read about other cases, or have any theories about when or how often this has happened.
Confirmed..... Hmmm might be difficult because you would need a blood or drug test. Good catch on the Johnson fight. I'd have to look it up but I thought an opponent or two of Brian Nielsen claimed to be drugged or poisoned (Jeremy Williams?). Wasn't there allegations that something was up with Wlad during the Brewster fight? Again, I don't think anything was substantiated.
Many fighters in the past were passed Mickey Finns unknowingly, it is like going to a get together, not accepting a drink from a stranger, it is safer that way.
That's an interesting dilemma in the modern world of drug testing. If you think you were given something, and especially if you somehow won anyway, now you have to worry about what's going to show up in the drug test. Do you try to hide the evidence even though you were the victim?
Tim “Doc” Anderson claimed he was drugged by someone under the direction of promoter Rick “Elvis” Parker in his rematch with Mark Gastineau, which he lost by KO. For those who don’t know, Gastineau was a star football player for the New York Jets and an all-time pass rusher. Also quite a character and had a lot of personality. He crossed over into boxing and fell in with Parker, a snake-oil salesman of a promoter who worked with George Foreman early in George’s comeback and Bert Cooper and others. Anderson was, at best, a journeyman. Bit of a ham-and-eager. Early KO victim to George and Larry Holmes in the infancy of their comebacks. But an honest prizefighter. Rick had it in his head that if he got Gastineau to I think 12-0 he could cash in with some million-dollar purse to fight George in some kind of circus world PPV. But there were some likely outright dives involved in Gastineau’s wins and some people probably found at bus stations … Mark was a good athlete football-wise but he couldn’t fight a lick. Mark needed some credibility and Anderson, at least, had a winning record and the idea was if Gastineau knocked him out quicker than George had, they could build on that. So they fought on the USA Network and Doc took Mark to school and beat him. Anderson claims Rick offered him big money to take a dive (and also somehow, according to Doc, Elvis owed him like $200K in back purses or some ridiculous amount) and he refused and in beating Gastineau ruined Parker’s big dream fight. (Parker was also a paranoid cokehead and a lot of other things, btw.) So Doc’s story is that Rick offered to pay him all that back money to fight Gastineau in a rematch in Oklahoma (non-televised) and then had someone drug him. And after that fight he also lost massive amounts of weight, couldn’t walk properly and had all kind of other medical problems that doctors couldn’t isolate. And if he could find out what he was drugged with, there might be a solution/treatment for his issues. Anderson decided to have a showdown with Parker and make him tell him what he had been drugged with. He says he’s working on a book and will pay Rick I think $75K to come clean and tell the truth for the book. At the meeting, which doesn’t go well, Anderson pulls a gun and shoots Parker to death (taking time to reload btw). There’s a book called ‘Year of the Locusts’ about it which goes into great detail and other stuff on the internet.
I believe Renne Arrendono claimed he was drugged in his bout with a Japanese boxer which cost him his title. He latter got a rematch a won it back.
Jimmy Dupree claimed he was drugged down in Venezuela when he fought Vincente Rondon for the vacant 175 lb title and one of his entourage, a nurse in fact, wrote a lengthy letter to Ring Magazine which was published. that verified his version of events and noted the extreme symptoms she claimed to see. Pretty sure someone on this site posted on behalf of 70's middleweight Rusty Rosenberger saying that Lou Duva drugged him and bet against him in the same fight. Can't remember specifically, but it might've been claimed it was against Nino Gonzales?
From recent memory, Deontay Wilder, Kid Galahad, Ali v Cooper, Lucas Browne (all claimed, not confirmed).
