Drug testing policies in boxing

if a fighter likes to snort coke before a fight, so be it, but is it scientifically proven coke does or does not enchance an athlete's performance? :think things like these take years of experimenting and tests, and will cause rows between scientists, and besides, coke is a complex mixture of many substances, many of which are also found in performance enchancing drugs, so let's say fighter A is PED free, never doped in his life, but likes to take a snort before getting into the ring to calm his nerves or whatever, what is he supposed to do if the post-fight tests reveals that substance A, found in drug X, is also found in cocaine? :think

 

to calm nerves probly. same as when archers or biathletes can't use beta blockers to slow their heart rates down.

 

but how do you prove someone is snorting coke, and not taking PED's, if they share the same banned substance and it pops up in the drug test samples? :think I share the same opinion as you in this matter though, until proven non-PED drugs enchance athlete's performance, let them use it if they feel the need to :yep

 

the thing is, nsac is going with the wada banned list.

the boxer will get punished if he gets caught with anything on that list even though it ain't beneficial to his boxing performance.

 

Great writeup IB. Honestly, I think I agree with pretty much if not all of it. With the possible caveat of some diuretics that can be used to mask.

Here is a good paper on diuretics in sports, including masking uses.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2962812/

But making the punishment fit the crime so to speak, is certainly a good idea. I think it would lead to more promoters being willing to do testing. Heck, do just blood testing for PEDs only randomly pre-fight, then drop urine post-fight. That way events cant get called off (and money lost by promoter/TV) for smoking weed... fine the fighter.

 

I don't doubt that but the point is that you never know how stuff is used. Getting a different list for each sport is not a good idea. So if you want that belt, don't smoke grass.

 

If weed was a PED in boxing, Chavez Jr would be p4p#1 already...

 

I really think the question is, knowing what they undoubtedly do about their fighters (if they are a good manager/promoter anyhow) , would leaving out diuretics lead to more willingness to test for "hard peds"?

For example look at the recent Pascal/Kovalev example. Both Interbox and ME given their respective market positions had so much riding on that fight in addition to the fighters careers... even if they are both reasonably certain their guy is not juicing there is no way either company actually wanted the worlds most sensitive testing, especially against the WADA list. Even is Pascal had been the one testing positive, ME would still have lost too much money.

Irresponsible? Maybe. But it is what it is. Fans and media have called for better testing for years, if it doesnt happen its because so many people in the actual business like promoters and managers dont want it.

Unless I have read wrong, other than simply excreting a substance from the body quicker due to higher water throughput diuretics do not have the ability to mask blood tests just urine. Because while they can change the composition of urine, they cant hide anything from a blood test.

Maybe diuretics are not a good thing, but I have to agree that cutting weight is not the same as a real steroid.

 

I'm not sure why in this day and age this hasn't been modified, I agree, Hgh, epo, steroids, should get the harshest punishment, and weed, coke, and other recs should be left out. Diuretics are tricky though, maybe a 2nd tier punishment.

I believe the ufc has altered their punishments on some level concerning recs vs peds in their new year round random testing plan beginning in July.

I believe it all depends on the substances used similarly based on your udea that peds are weapons, recs are not. A first time offender could get up too 2 years suspension depending on the amount or type of or peds they used.

I'm not sure the punishment on anything as it hasn't been revealed, but it appears recreationals are going to be punished much less than peds. I'm not even sure how much they are testing for recreationals in the few details I remember reading about their new policy.