Are you idealistic about boxing at all anymore

[Gandalf]

No, I am not idealistic anymore. It's like with life, you start off idealistic and gradually the realisation that corruption and greed is everywhere begins to whittle away at you. It's not like in the films where the good guy wins in the end. The crooks have it all and they are here to stay.

I've also been a huge Toney fan, but it really pissed me off when he was caught for using drugs. And then he did it again! It's cheating, plain and simple. I've never seen the appeal in cheating. I have never done it and I struggle to understand the thinking of people that do it. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing that what I did was flawed and illegal. Where is the satisfaction in that? It's a hollow victory.

Yep, Mosley too. Comes across as a really likeable guy, but another one that got caught out. I was always against Manny because this is boxing and you have to support your own fighters, but I always recognised that he comes across as a fairly decent chap. However, coming across as a fairly likeable chap just doesn't cut it anymore. He is another one acting up like a crook. Maybe guilty, maybe not. But the actions are not suggestive of someone with nothing to hide.

[miron_lang]

Al berrnstein's article is such a relief.

BOXINGTALK

[OumaFan]

I really like Al and I agree with some of his points about Manny improving his technique as he went along and that just cause he's done well moving up doesn't mean he should be cast as a drug user but he ignores the gigantic elephant in the room.

Why won't he just take the blood tests?

Saying he hasn't failed a test yet is really just deflection. There are ways to get around the standard tests. Everyone knows it. Its not even worth discussing.

Saying it would disrupt his training is the only semi-viable excuse and its really not a very good one.

[Andre]

I really like Al and I agree with some of his points about Manny improving his technique as he went along and that just cause he's done well moving up doesn't mean he should be cast as a drug user but he ignores the gigantic elephant in the room.

Why won't he just take the blood tests?

Saying he hasn't failed a test yet is really just deflection. There are ways to get around the standard tests. Everyone knows it. Its not even worth discussing.

Saying it would disrupt his training is the only semi-viable excuse and its really not a very good one.

Surprising exactly what humans choose to believe in order to not have to face up to some things (mainly the truth).



The world is a dark place"! " mate you got a bag on your head"

[piye]

It's true. Boxing pisses me of! The best don't fight the best and the amount of corruption is sickening.

[JazMerkin]

This probably killed my last bit of idealism about boxing. As a kid, my favourite fighters were Roy Jones Jr, Diego Corrales, Floyd Mayweather Jr & Shane Mosley. Shane was my favourite, I used to try & base my whole style around him. I was still only young when Roy tested positive, but it really bothered me, even if I told myself it might not be so bad, I couldn't really root for him again.

It was finding out Shane did it that killed most of my idealism. I've spent years telling myself he didn't know, but the harsh reality that has dawned on me particularly since researching more on the BALCO incident in the last year has basically told me that there is no way that he didn't know what was up. It's why I can understand how Pac-fans are reacting, because I know that feeling of finding out something about your favourite fighter, even if obviously Pac might not be guilty & just has a phobia about taking blood that only manifests itself 24 days before a fight.

But, yeah as I said in another post, even if I wasn't necessarily a Pacquiao fan, he had provided me with some memorable moments & the feeling I now have is they might have been worth fuck all. Aw well, I'll get over it.

I'll just do what I always do. Blame Bob Arum.

[Dean Duke]

When I was a youngster every thing was black and white, you were on one side or another and I thought that's how life was, but its not is it, every thing has a swerve to it and the higher up you go the more people's morals are up for grabs, with large sums of cash on offer if you do so, it is a damm shame but that's the way it is and after the debacle with Manny n Floyd not getting it on that's another nail in the coffin for boxing, if you ask me, this whole scenario should not have been made public, it didn't have to be this way, this wouldn't of been in the public eye twenty years ago, there would of been a press release stating terms offered are not agreeable and boxing would not have been tarnished like it has over this latest drug scandal.
As for who is to blame for the fight not happening I blame the commissions, the promoters and then the training teams. The commissions make the rules and with drug testing only being a urine one, that is twenty years behind the times, random blood tests are the only way forward, all title fights should have random blood testing. The promoters are wrong to leak misinformation and lies to the press and finally the training teams who know there fighters are on Peds and don't say a thing, to me Peds are just as bad as Margos loaded wraps.
Now I look back on some great fighters and think what where they taking, its tarnished every fighter to a greater or lesser degree.