“The idea . . . we talked to the Nevada commission and they are going to do it as vigorously as VADA and USADA do it, maybe more so,” said Arum. “This is not something for a promoter. This is something for the regulatory commission. And as long as [testing] is totally vigorous, these fighters don’t understand. There’s no VADA. No USADA. As long as the testing is the same as [those agencies] are doing, as long as the tests are administered by the commission, that’s as good as you’re going to get.”

That’s not necessarily true. In a logical and perfect world, the state commissions charged with overseeing boxing would follow WADA Code and have anti-doping testing that is both year round and state-of-the-art. But this is boxing which is very far from logic or perfection. Each state has different rules about everything. Some states don’t test at all. And when they do, it’s not a lock they’ll test for PEDs. Some only test for recreational drugs.

The truth is that whenever USADA or VADA have been conducting tests for fights in Nevada or elsewhere, both agencies conducted more stringent and state-of-the-art testing than any state commission. That’s because each group uses World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited sample collectors and labs. Nevada uses Quest Diagnostics, which uses neither WADA-trained and accredited sample collectors or labs. The labs USADA and VADA use, either the UCLA Olympic Testing Lab or the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL) in Salt Lake City, Utah, can conduct tests for drugs of choice like the endurance building blood doping agent EPO, or Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and synthetic testosterone. Quest Diagnostics does not have that capability.

“So maybe they’ll use another lab for this,” said Arum when I explained this to him.

That Arum did not know this rudimentary detail raises yet another important question: who is designing this protocol that will, according to Arum, be based on VADA and USADA’s? Who is the “PED expert” in charge of detailing what drugs need to be tested for and how often? It took VADA roughly a year to put together its protocols with people such as WADA co-founder Richard Pound, former Tower of Power bass player, BALCO founder and anti-doping activist Victor Conte as well as co-creators of CIR Dr. Rodrigo Aguilera and Dr. Don Catlin weighing in at various stages along the way. In the recent Lucian Bute-Jean Pascal promotion, testing was also an issue. Unable to come to an agreement over VADA versus USADA, both promotional companies lost valuable testing time as they tried to come to an agreement, find a lab and put together a protocol agreed upon by all parties.

The point is that it’s not as easy as paying someone to “do it like VADA or USADA.”

Another question is whether or not this promotion’s testing protocol will follow WADA Code or Nevada’s. For example, WADA allows for a 4:1 T/E ratio which is in essence, an allowance of four times the amount of testosterone that your body produces, at any given time in or out of competition. Nevada has a 6:1 T/E ratio for reasons still unclear.

Max Boxing - News - New York, Nevada, and the 6:1 T/E Ratio problem in Boxing

Nevada also has a controversial recent history of allowing therapeutic use exemptions (TUE) for synthetic testosterone for MMA fighters. In several cases, the TUE was not revealed until after the bout. Could that happen here?

Arum said he had spoken to both Nevada chairman Bill Brady and Executive Director Keith Kizer about the plan, which apparently began forming last week.

“They said to me that as long as I pay for it, they will do testing as extensive, if not more so, as those organizations do,” stated Arum. “If that means, using another lab, they have no contract with the labs they are using.”

The validity of the latter statement remains to be seen.


Max Boxing - News - Will Arum's proposed Nevada testing endanger Marquez vs. Bradley?