Drug cheats, What would you do ?

Yeah that is true for testing organisations, and that is where a huge amount of the "costs" derive from. Setting up your own in house testing would not incur the same costs such as $30k. As soon as promoters start feeling some proper heat for their clients and employees being cheats then they will 100% put measures in place to ensure that they are clean.

Make the fighters turn up every month for testing on their own accord to an in house testing arrangement. If the fighter doesnt like that or doesnt want to then boxing prob aint the line of work for them.

 

Just let them all cheat, they pretty much are anyway.

 

By rights, we know what should happen. More rigorous and regular testing, backed up by meaningful and lengthy bans on failed tests. In the last few years we're actually getting a lot more positive tests, but this is undermined by the lack of meaningful consequences for doing so.

The problem is, that those with a vested interest in making happen have a vested interest in it not. Boxing is a heavily star and event driven sport, and you can't easily replace a superstar like Canelo if he is on the shelf for years, or recreate a huge PPV event by slotting someone else in and hoping fans won't notice. There isn't much incentive for the likes of Hearn to lead a crusade on doping, when it will probably impact on his bottom line.

There is also the issue where the highest profile fighters have potentially more resources than the authorities, which they can challenge rulings through the courts. Fury is the obvious example in boxing, but there's also a precedent in other sports like cycling where Chris Froome was essentially able to beat the case by undermining the credibility of the testing process, rather than the levels on his system.

Expecting the promoters and the alphabet brigade to sort this out, is ultimately doomed to failure. They are the reason that the structure of boxing is in such a mess in the first place. Arguably the television networks have a greater role to play, as there is greater ethical scrutiny on them that goes way beyond boxing, and they have the power to shape opinion by the narrative they push. A lot of it though has to come from the fighters and the boxing community themselves. They know who is doping, they know how much of this goes on (you don't exactly need to be in the secret inner sanctum of a gym before you get exposed to it). Protection for whistleblowers, get the feds and INTERPOL involved, issue subpoenas and then you get somewhere and tackle the root causes.

 

has to be lifetime bans for certain substances whether accidental or not. Some PEDs give you lifetime benefits therefore its not just cheating there and then in some cases its cheating for life even if clean after it. So in with some substances it has to be lifetime as thats how long they reap the rewards for.

 

Petition to criminalise doping in combat sports.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/260458

 

Lifetime ban. Right to appeal of course but that's it.

You can be banned for eight years for trying to be a faster sprinter than the guy you are running against. You can't even touch him never mind beat him up. Eight years. And we see, in a sport where people die, six month bans for people who were going to be out of the ring for six months anyway. The equivalent of being caught taking drugs as a sprinter for a race on Friday, being told you can't sprint on Saturday, but Sunday is fine. Literally no deterrent.

It would also be good if fans collectively could adopt an attitude across the board. You have Whyte fans on here who will no doubt try and work out a reason why it's not all bad. The Fury fans swallowing stories of tainted meat and turning a blind eye are pathetic. Doesn't matter if it's your favourite fighter of all time or a guy you've never heard of. Once you're caught you should be banned forever.

 

There's no point having harsh punishments, when plenty aren't getting caught. Harsh punishments aren't a good deterrent without a good chance of getting caught.

What they need to do is get better at catching people, else they'll just be randomly punishing those with a bit of back luck, or with less backing to avoid the tests, while most, and especially those with the best backing, get away with it.

What I'd like to see if proper year round random testing, being done frequently for anyone ranked, and use of the best testing methods, as well as keeping and testing old samples once newer methods are avalible.

I think ATM people can avoid testing just by going abroad, because they don't have the resources to test in every country. If a ranked fighter wants to take a holiday or training camp where testing can't readily be implemented, they should either have to pay for it themselves, or not be allowed to go there.

But it'd take a lot of investment, and the anti-doping stuff is mostly just talk.

 

life bans, heavy financial punishments, like sue them for all their purses earned...cripple them even it means bankruptcy. As things stands it is worth getting a 6 month ban an little financial punishment. Fighters think its worth the risk. If they benefit from them for life, from doing cycles for just one fight then they need to be banned for life.

The keeping and retesting of older samples is defo something that should happen 100%.

 

I know mate absolute farce, but people like him should get life bans. Until all the different board of controls have the same rules and testing these issues will happen non stop.

 

The punishments should probably be harsher. But I think the most important thing is getting the testing better so people actually get caught. I'll use an extreme example to illustrate.

Like imagine we made the punishment for speeding on the motor way the death penalty. Do you think anyone would speed?

But what if it was only a 1 in 50,000 chance of being caught in a year if you speed? Well that's lower than your risk of dying in a car accident anyway, so plenty probably would.

Boxing is inherantly going to have people willing to take chances, and in some way it'll make the field less level, since guy like Canelo or Joshua could get the best teams to beat the testing, and get the best lawyers etc. to avoid the punishment if they do get caught.

 

If the effects last a lifetime (even if it just 1% improvement on 1 small area) then it has to be a lifetime ban no ifs no buts. I cant see any argument against this that stands up tbh.

 

has to be both bud. better testing, more testing and much more sever punishments. Like Scissors said above if the ban is 6 months that can sometimes not be a ban as certain fighters only fight every 6 months

 

There need to be harsher bans but it needs to be matched by all authorities. I actually think that often the UKAD bans are far harsher than those by other doping authorities around the world, despite their rep on here...

 

Let them all do it.

 

The trouble is, atleast with testing they have to keep the doping to sensible levels to avoid detection.

Without any testing you could end up with lunatics killing themselves with PEDs to try and get an advantage.