In the aftermath of his stunning sixth-round knockout victory over Manny Pacquiao this past December, Juan Manuel Marquez met with a fair amount of skepticism from a boxing public stunned over the outcome and his newly chiseled physique.
His association with Angel "Memo" Heredia—who goes by the name Angel Hernandez—raised additional flags for many, as Memo had been associated with the BALCO scandal. He avoided jail time only by becoming a witness for the federal government.
Other than innuendo and conjecture, no evidence has surfaced implicating that Marquez sought or used any performance-enhancing drugs for his fight with Pacquiao or anyone else.
But in a combat sport, you can never be too careful, and that's why his next opponent, Timothy Bradley, is right for insisting on stringent testing requirements for their October bout on HBO pay-per-view.
Bradley's team has indicated that the contract for their bout requires both United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) testing and the much more rigorous requirements of the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA).
According to Bradley, Marquez was initially reluctant about the inclusion of VADA, and a compromise was reached to use both labs. In his last bout, with Russian Ruslan Provodnikov, Bradley submitted to VADA testing.
Marquez now seems willing to participate in the programs, but Top Rank CEO Bob Arum appears to be attempting a last-minute switcheroo. He wants the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which is known for its lapsed standards, to administer testing instead.
For his part, Bradley indicated that if Marquez weren't subjected to the USADA and VADA testing, then the fight wouldn't happen, according to Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times. And who can blame him?
Nobody is saying that Marquez is doing anything illegal. You can draw your own conclusions from his associations and his newfound muscle. It's possible that his improved physique is the result of a new training regimen and hard work, as he has stated on more than one occasion.
But Bradley, or any other fighter for that matter, needs to be sure. There should be no disagreement or negotiations when it comes to strict drug testing in any fight.
Boxers are trained to land punches that maximize their impact. It's a dangerous game, and everyone who signs up for it knows the inherent risks.
Fighters and fans understand that any punch could end a career or even someone's life. That risk is more amplified when a fighter is using a substance designed to make him hit harder or faster.
Boxing needs some sort of universal standard to root this problem out of the sport. It's not baseball, where PEDs result in a few more home runs or strikeouts. In boxing, they can end a life.
Bradley is 100 percent correct for threatening to pull out of the fight without strict drug testing in place. And more specifically, he's right for insisting that VADA be the organization to administer the testing.
Unlike many other protocols for PED testing, VADA does not provide any sort of advance notice before administering a test.
Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. It's hard to imagine perfection ever coming when there is such an incentive to use better, stronger and harder-to-detect substances that enhance performance.
But right now, VADA is the best we have. And Bradley should stick to his guns. Either Marquez takes the tests, or Bradley walks away.
After all, it's his life on the line, and no amount of money can replace it.
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