Poll: Where do you stand on PEDs in boxing ?

It won’t stop, so it should be regulated. There needs to be measures in place to be clinically administered while still being held accountable for those who abuse the system. It’s the Wild West in professional sports because PEDs are banned. So athletes find ways to beat the system seeking out shady avenues to get PEDs from whoever can supply the demand. If it was regulated at least there would be some control to provide some safety nets based on medical studies for what is safe vs what’s considered high risk. Just my opinion

 

Probably true.....................and I don't like VADA and the WBC framing Povetkin and Ortiz to protect Wilder either.

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At the moment it's a joke, both in terms of testing and regulation. Fighters get busted for nonsense while others miss tests or p!ss hot and not only receive no warning but get rewarded with title shots. Fighters get exempted based on where they're from, while others are vilified. There's no consistency, or rather no fairness in how punishments are meted out.

Frankly I'd prefer if they did away with testing altogether at the moment, since the situation as it stands sucks.

 

I'm surprised so many are for regulating it at the moment.

Testing in boxing sucks. The worst offenders usually get away with it, while others get their careers derailed for virtually nothing.
Often the guys that really get caught get rediculously low bans or a TUE or "tainted food (supplement)" call after the fact, which very often depends how big a name you are and/or which country you represent.
And then there's the big name guys who allegedly put it in their contracts that there will be no testing for them, or no fight.

Most people here would recall the first clusterflock that was the VADA "cleaning up the sport" testing at the time of the GBP/Haymon thing. Suddenly the guys that weren't supposed to get caught were falling like flies, promting them to drop VADA testing as fast as humanly possible.
And there's where the whole issue lies here.
They can catch most offenders, but Boxing is too corrupted and unregulated that they don't. Guys that aren't supposed to get caught, but do get caught (sometimes even red handed), get away with it anyway. With their fans completely denying they did, usually reciting the bullshirt excuse, that got them off.

Though it gets harder and harder for cheaters to cheat nowadays. If the WBA follows suit, 50% of the available top15's will be under VADA testing, and then having the "right" nationality doesn't hand you a safetyblanket anymore either.
Regulating it would become dangerous, because if guys could use stuff that would now be detected by even the easiest test, it would become a "Who can create the biggest monster?" thing instead of a sport.
Like the East German "women" shotputters from the 80's.

 

I'm shocked to see so many if favor of allowing PEDs or discontinuing testing. Aside from making contests fair and whatever it's too dangerous of a sport to have it's competitors using.

Although its use does appear pretty widespread at present the difficulty comes in when you have to ascertain whether or not the fighter knowingly took something on a banned list. Ignorance in this case is hard to excuse as the authorities clearly notify them what isn't allowed. That said a fighter will usually rely on a S&C coach or similar to work out what he's taking and so has that as a cover when he gets busted. While it's often an excuse there's bound to be cases when the fighter genuinely didn't know and was let down by the ignorance or incompetence of his team.

Maybe more needs to be done to root out and ban coaches and S&C that have been linked to failed tests as well?!

 

who gives a **** who takes ****? just fight we pay good money to these ****ing fighter

 

So, those who voted Stop the testing nonsense, have you considered this: Boxer A takes PEDs but is across the board average in most categories (Power, Defense, Speed, etc). Boxer B is clean and matches well but is a bit more skilled in certain categories. It's a close fight, but Boxer B appears to be winning going into the 11th round. Out of no where, thanks to the endurance and stamina gain of PED's, Boxer A suddenly puts together an 8 punch combo that TKO's boxer B. So Boxer A wins, not on Skill, not on power, but on the extra gain from PEDs. And you're ok with this? This is not a tainted win, IYO?
So your logic is: Well if Boxer B would have taken PEDs, he would have won instead, based on being more skilled in categories and would have equal endurance and stamina, but shame on him for wanting to be clean?
So now boxing is 33% mental, 33% physical, and 34% which ever PEDs works the best?

 

the worst thing is, that if you give 2 boxers exactly the same peds, both boxers might react very differently to it.
Also, the one with the glaring weakness (stamina for instance) might have lost 9 out of 10 times without peds and win 9 out of 10 with them in his system.

There's no level playingfield. As long as career destroying weaknesses can be fixed by some PEDs (they can!), guys that never would make it past gatekeeper level without can suddenly become champions if everybody uses. Just by chemically fixing that one weakness that otherwise would have killed their career.

 

imo there should be a mandatory 2 year ban worldwide for a 1st offense and lifelong ban for second offense.

 

Either allow it, or give a life long ban for anyone caught using peds.

If it’s banned I personally believe that criminal charges need to come into it as well. Bellew touched on the subject a few weeks back; in boxing we are talking about putting peoples lives at risk. It’s not a race or a bodybuilding competition, so they need to either allow it, evening the playing field, or bring in such harsh punishments that it becomes unthinkable to us peds.

 

There's a safe way for PEDs to be utilized. In moderation. Unfortunately because there's no framework or authority managing how athletes use these drugs, many of them are abusing them putting their long term health at risk. The ban on PEDs only creates an environment where athletes are forced to find ways around the testing protocols. It's like how weed is still illegal for many countries. It isn't realistic or sustainable.

The amount of pressure professional athletes are under to perform at ever increasing physical levels propels these athletes to seek ways to rise to the status quo that is always moving. The human body is amazing and are capable of doing more than what most realize....but a lot of these athletes have hit that threshold using S&C coaches, nutritionists and new wave exercises pushing their limits..

What they find out it's still not enough to compete. Which is why most athletes are seeking out other measures to get more out of their bodies through some form of supplemental products. What athletes do in order to reach this level puts a lot of strain on their bodies....they have to push themselves longer, harder and more consistently than ever before.

Recovery time needs to happen faster and they need a way for their bodies to respond. There's no standardization or continuity for what is safe, what the appropriate dosing should be or how frequently these substances should be taken. If we had a governing body responsible for our sport, this could be a realistic option. But boxing is the only sport that doesn't have a governing body that oversees the entire sport. It's a major problem.

 

Yes, it's been that way for years. If you're naive or foolish enough to choose to compete clean in this sport then you've only got yourself to blame when you end up at an unfair disadvantage. Fighters will continue to take whatever they can get away with and at this stage it's impossible to expect any type of cleaning up of the sport, so you either get with the program or don't become a boxer in the first place.

 

For the record, “Horse steroids “ cost as much as the “rocket fuel”

 

Juice them all to the gills.

 

I did not know that