Victor Conte Weighs In,...

Conte Weighs In

By Steve Kim

Say what you want about him, but Victor Conte - the man who chemically masterminded the success of various world-class athletes while running BALCO- has a unique perspective on this debate surrounding the ’Olympic-style’ drug testing that the camp of Floyd Mayweather is insisting on prior to them facing Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao and his camp, are balking at the insistence of drawing blood and the number of times they would be subjected to do so.

Conte believes that blood testing is vital in this instance. But not for the reason everyone thinks.

He emailed Maxboxing,:’In my opinion, blood testing for the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight is more important for detecting possible blood doping or use of EPO than it is for human growth hormone. Measuring hematocrit levels (percentage of red blood cells to total whole blood volume) is very important. For example, even without a positive urine test for EPO, cyclists are temporarily suspended for two weeks if their hematocrit is greater than 50%. An elevated hematocrit can provide a significant advantage to a fighter by enhancing oxygen uptake and utilization. This would benefit a fighter in training and especially during the later rounds of a fight."


Some observers have been suspicious of Pacquiao’s recent dominance as he has moved up in weight. ’the Pac Man’, who won his first world title as a flyweight( 112-pounds), has knocked out the trio of Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and, most recently, Miguel Cotto, in succession. Leading some to believe that he is ’juicing’- meaning he is on a form of steroids or HGH( human growth hormone). But Conte believes that a blood test must be adminstered for the reason stated up above in his email.

"One, I think that increasing hematocrit levels, whether it’s by traditional blood-doping or the use of EPO, is of greater benefit to a boxer than the use of growth-hormone," he explained."So growth-hormone is more of an anti-catobolic agent that may help to accelerate the healing of the tissue repair process. But growth-hormone is not anabolic as an anabolic steroid. It’s an anti-catabolic agent and I believe that you don’t get a very big bang for your buck. I’m not a huge fan of growth-hormone. I don’t think it’s tremendously beneficial performance enhancing substance.

"EPO, though, in terms of boxing, is absolutely huge, both in training and as well as in a fight, especially during the later rounds."

Conte does have experience in boxing, having worked with Andre Ward and Eddie Chambers, recently, and back in 2003, during the heyday of BALCO, assisted with Shane Mosley in his usage of illegal P.E.D’s in his rematch with Oscar De La Hoya. When asked if Mosley was on EPO for that fight, Conte answered,"Yes, he was."

Another factor that is essential is that the tests need to be random in nature.

"Otherwise," he explains,"it’s what they call ’announced testing’ and I’ve historically called that ’I.Q. testing’. So to apply that to other sports, it would be like showing up to training camp for Major League Baseball and they test you. That’s announced testing. You have to be pretty dumb to show up at training camp or at ’announced testing’ and test positive. The clearance time of most of these drugs that are out there are well known."

He also says that for these substances to be utilized at their maximum efficiency, they must be properly cycled and be out of your system by the time competition begins.

"Creams, transdurmals, clear the fastest. Orals, would be next. Water-based drugs- including testosterone- would be next, then the oil-based. So some of these can clear in a matter of hours and days," explained Conte."So if you know when you’re going to be tested a week out, you go off the use of oral testosterone, for example, you’re going to test negative. So that is really an issue."

Accoring to him,"Traditional testing in boxing, it’s basically worthless other than the detection of some types of stimulant, before and after a fight."

The Mayweather camp and Golden Boy Promotions, has insisted- against Bob Arum’s wishes- on employing USADA( the United States Anti-Doping Agency) and their methods to monitor both boxers leading into the fight( which is now in serious jeopardy). But USADA’s testing is hardly foolproof, as two of Conte’s most famous clients, Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, avoided detection for years from this organization.

"There’s lots of loopholes. They call that the ’gold standard testing’. I’ve said this as far back as 2004, that there are huge loopholes that you can drive an equivelant of a Mack Truck through. the USADA testing is certainly better than what is used in professional sports but it’s still relatively easy to beat the test," states Conte, who was also noted for working with baseball slugger Barry Bonds, during his assault on the record book." Now, I don’t know in the case of this fight, but the reason is because you’re allowed two missed tests and they can’t come back the next day because you have to be allowed a hearing to provide your reasonable explanation or the ’exceptional circumstance’ as they call it. So they’ll just come back the next day and of course none of this is transparent. It’s like being up to hit in baseball where you get two strikes and then you smack it out of the park and hit a home run. So it’s still relatively easy to beat USADA testing and in this particular case, I do believe you need to have random, unannounced testing. To just say,’I’ll be tested on this date’, there’s all sorts of things you can do with announced testing, you can’t do with unannounced testing."

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Happy squirmin' :crafty:

 

So Shane was on EPO, yet looked like shit compared to his first fight with Oscar?

 

Thats great. Maybe Ben Johnson and the Ghost of Flo Jo can chip in too.

 

Conte pointing out exactly why a guilty fire wouldn't want a random test.

 

I would like to point out only a coward asks for un-required tests. You Mayweather ball lickers make me vomit. Floyd is CLEARLY ducking Pacman.

 

All true. As I've said before, steroids and HGH are of little benefit to a boxer, given the way they train.

 

Take the Blinders OFF, Dipshit...The Current Testing System is ARCHAIC...CLEARLY, Pac's Personal Trainers R SOPHISTICATED Enough to BEAT the Current System, Which is Why they're VEHEMENTLY PROTESTING a More Stringent Procedure...

That's NOT a Fucking Coincidence...Except to a BLIND, PAC SAC Swinger like U...



REED:shit:

 

You keep repeating that and it doesn't make sense. The Police say when they catch a criminal on his first offense they automatically assume its his 11th offense and he got away with it the first 10 times. Obviously that wouldn't hold true in some cases but you get my drift. Shane got busted for one fight but he was steady on the PED's and still is IMO.

 

Extremely interesting turn of events here. Pacquiao, whose never been busted for steroids getting called out by a horde of Roy Jones nuthuggers. Does anyone see the irony here?

 

:notallthere:

 

Mayweather might be a bit more worry about Pacquiao than any of his previous opponents...but how could he know that Pacquiao was going to react like a little girl about taking a few random test...


i mean with 30-40 million on the line...who will cry about a few random drug test??? UNLESS you had something to hide...

 

That's what it all boils down to.

 

LAME...When U CAN'T Combat the Issue @ Hand, DEFLECT...


REED:shit:

 

What issue? That Manny Pac is the victim of a smear campaign?

 

That Manny is PETRIFIED of RANDOM Drug Testing...Where have U Been the Last Several Days???



REED:hammert:

 

Right here, kicking your ass. Where have you been? The anesthetist? :dunno:

 

Who cares Conte says! Manny afraid needles! Mayweather not over commission! commission ok! Floyd ducking!

- The Pacquiao aficionados.

 

TROLLING Doesn't Constitute "Kicking Ass", Homegirl....ALL U've Been Doin is Debating BOTH SIDES of the Coin like an ARGUMENTATIVE Little Bitch...ConFLATULATIONS!!!....


REED:cheer:

 

Shane isn't that good. Even with roids he looks like shit.

 

Well, they call that objectivity. Both sides of the argument. Anything less is unfair:nono:

 

Did Roy Jones opponents ever demand Olympic style testing which Roy declined?

 

Did they ever demand Olympic style testing?

 

well, coming from a PED guru, this must have some weight. I think Floyd should hire him, get juiced, beat the announced tests so that he can fight pacquiao on equal terms.

 

Then Manny can go and change the entire ruleset of an organization and demand that Floyd randomly be tested for fertility drugs based on the rumor's that he's gay.

 

::

Nice idea.

 

Oscar fought a much smarter fight the 2nd time around, as he boxed more at range, and used better movement. Oscar spent much of the fight on the front foot, trying to walk down Mosley. Not totally recklessly, but the exchanges are where Mosley excels, not in a more tactical boxing match.

Plus, Mosley's generally looked so-so at 154, and was in a down point in his career in the rematch, having not won a fight in over two years and looking like some confidence was lacking.

 

Transparent.

Welcome to being on the right side of the issue openly. I suspected as much all along.

 

Nice try. Unfortunately for you and the other Mosley haters there were documents that were seized that said Shane took EPO during the Oscar fight only. Plus you could see a discernable difference in not only his size but his lack of punching speed due to increased muscle mass during that fight. You want to speculate and call Shane a cheat throughout his whole career, go right ahead. But just like with Manny Pacquiao the whole thing is just that, speculation.

 

Possibly, why did Shane even admit to it? Because his name was linked to Balco and he was sort of forced to admit it or what?

I guess my point is, I don't know if Pacquiao is doing PEDs or not, but is there an example of a fighter performing much better roided than un roided?

We know what it could do for sprinters, but boxing is a very very different sport, and we don't really have a clear cut idea of what roids can do, and how a roided fighter can perform compared to a non roided fighter.

By now, I think we've all gathered enough info to realise that a post fight piss test isn't exactly hard to pass right?

The fact that Vargas failed the basic post fight piss test would lend some weight to the notion that he didn't know he had taken steroids, and they were given to him by some former NFL guy assisting with training or something.

Vargas lost that fight, and didn't look any better than he usually does.