Floyd Mayweather's drug testing demands a welcome sight to USADA's Travis Tygart

Floyd Mayweather's drug testing demands a welcome sight to USADA's Travis Tygart

By David Mayo | The Grand Rapids Press

January 21, 2010, 9:00AM

Travis Tygart, dragged unwittingly into the failed Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao negotiations, nevertheless did not mind. And now that Mayweather again is demanding comprehensive, random, Olympic-style blood and urine testing for a fight against admitted former steroid user Shane Mosley -- and, in fact, for any future opponent -- Tygart’s perspective remains on the front burner.

Tygart is chief executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Association, the organization responsible for Olympic drug testing in this country.

Both camps sought his advice in the Mayweather-Pacquiao talks, one obviously with greater interest than the other, before the negotiation failed this month.

Tygart called the urine testing used by boxing commissions across this country “a joke.” And with Grand Rapids native Mayweather trend-setting for improved standards, Tygart’s position on how boxing screens for performance-enhancing drugs has forced the sport to consider whether its stance is outdated.

Cory Olsen | The Grand Rapids PressFloyd Mayweather's camp demanded Olypmic-style random blood testing or a fight with Manny Pacquiao and negotiations fell through.For years, it was assumed steroids only could help heavyweights, in a sport where making a weight limit otherwise is requisite.

That was before 154-pounders Fernando Vargas and Mariano Carrera, and 126-pounder Orlando Salido, all tested positive for steroids after championship bouts in 2002, and Mosley testified in the BALCO investigation that he used them before a 147-pound fight the next year.

“It amazes me. I’m not even sure how to respond to such a misperception,” Tygart said of the outdated thinking. “Where has the sport been for the past 10 years, seriously? Candidly, it’s impossible for me to believe that that perception exists about the sport. I think it’s easier to stick your head in the sand and just say ‘We’re not going to do anything about it.’

“When you’ve got 14-year-old in-line roller skaters doping, and you’ve got drugs like insulin, and human growth hormone, and designer steroids, and EPO, and transfusions, that would be extremely potent and effective for a boxer -- even one attempting to cut weight -- then you throw in the whole diuretics and masking agents, the things that you would use along with those drugs to assist you in cutting weight, it’s a ripe area for a doper.”

With a little knowledge and minimal expense, potent performance-enhancers, undetectable via urine testing, can transform a workaday world champion into “the strongest, fittest, pound-for-pound best boxer, with the most punch,” Tygart said.

AP File PhotoTravis TygertIn fact, Mosley -- who has posted on his Web site that he would agree to blood testing -- passed Nevada’s drug tests during the time he was using steroids.

“They don’t test for EPO,” Tygart said. “They don’t test for designer steroids. They test for a basic, simple menu that anybody with a heartbeat will escape. I just hate to hear that Shane Mosley did something really sophisticated to get around their testing. No, he didn’t. He would’ve been caught dead to rights in our program. But it doesn’t take a lot to sidestep the simple kind of drug testing that these state commissions are doing.”

Tygart said the only way to accurately monitor athletes is through “true, no-notice testing,” adding that with a few hours’ notice, any athlete can mask his or her use of performance-enhancers.

Mayweather-Pacquiao talks ultimately broke apart when Mayweather yielded to a 14-day window before their proposed fight when there would be no blood testing, while Pacquiao only would grant a 24-day window.

“If that’s the case, the other piece is that, prior to that 14-day or 24-day blackout period, what system was in place?” Tygart said. “Were you just using the Nevada, or the state of California, system? If that’s the case, I’m not worried about the 14-day or the 24-day blackout period, I’m worried about the rest of it.”

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Blood testing apparently will not be the sticking point for Mayweather-Mosley that it was for Mayweather-Pacquiao.

It could, however, have a broader impact on how boxing addresses the issue.

“At the end of the day, our interest is the interests of clean athletes,” Tygart said. “So anyone, Mayweather or otherwise, who stands up and says ‘I want the best program to protect my right to compete,’ we’re going to support him."