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There was a high level of excitement from boxing enthusiasts when the announcement was made that Nonito Donaire would meet Guillermo Rigondeaux in the ring on April 13.
However, none of us expected this fight to bring boxing out of the dark ages and into a modern infrastructure where fighter should be tested by independent doping agencies.
Top Rank announced that the bout would take place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, putting on the line the WBO super bantamweight title and the WBA super world super bantamweight title.
With so much on the line for both fighters, there was a decision made with the support from both camps that the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association and the United States Anti-Doping Agency would be involved in keeping this fight clean.
When the disccussions first began, Rigondeaux reportedly wanted to have USADA test both fighters while Donaire reportedly favoured VADA. There was also a disagreement regarding the time frame when these tests should be administered.
Regardless of all the disputes that occurred during the negotiations surrounding the testing, the fight is going to happen. Both fighters have now agreed on the fight and reportedly the contracts includes USADA and VADA testing.
Let’s face it, boxing needs this anti-doping testing to work because this will help the sport achieve an equal playing field and new fans will be more likely to embrace a regulated sport that doesn’t have so much controversy surrounding it’s fighters.
Yes, I will have to make reference to the Marquez knockout of Pacquiao. There is no way that a fighter knocking out a former eight division champ in the sixth round, leaving him crumpled face first in the ring, is something you just gloss over.
Marquez, at 39 years of age, seemed to have what could be considered a rapid growth before his fight with Pacquiao. Couple that with his reported link to the notorious Angel “Memo” Heredia, and it raised some uncomfortable questions regarding how ‘natural’ the end result of last December’s match-up actually was.
No, I’m not here to mention only Marquez because Pacquiao in the past has also been a subject of discussion in the matter of Performance Enhancing Drugs. The most popular and well-known case of someone mentioning Pacquiao and PED’s, of course, is Floyd Mayweather Jr’s ill-fated attempt at doing so a few years back. That ultimately ended in a lengthy legal battle and Mayweather Jr basically being forced to backpedal on his baseless, unsubstantiated claims.
The issue here is not who is taking PED’s; it’s all about moving the sport forward to have regular independent testing done. After the whole Lance Armstrong debacle we don’t need to have any of that bad press surrounding boxing, a sport which is already holding on to dear life.
