Larry O on PEDs in boxing

[dookus]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/ ... e-a-living

Interesting perspective and well worth a read.

[Steveh583]

Enjoyed that. Thanks for posting. Though surely we all know this by now

[margaret thatcher]

People are really selective anyway when it comes to who they slate for PED use, like they will bash Miller or Whyte etc but not mention nandrolone buddies Ortiz or Fury having used, few people are consistent in caring

[Stuarty]

Whyte has been caught at it twice. His body shape seems to change quite dramatically as well. Miller admitted he was at it. I don't think Fury was on the gear. If he was then he should be banned. He already has a massive physical advantage against most people he fights anyway! It's a massive grey area and something i don't really know a lot about admittedly....

[margaret thatcher]

He was juicing up on nandrolone bruh, failed multiple tests, Hughie got caught too

[gilgamesh]

Any perspective other than "F*ck it, let 'em take PED's" and I'm not onboard.

If everyone was on 'em, it would cease to be a disadvantage.

Testing for 'em is obviously questionable at best because they only seem to catch 10% of the suspected users. Either because they found a way to pass the test with masking agents or they found the right palm to grease.

Just let 'em all take PED's and let's wash our hands of the whole business. Fights wouldn't get cancelled, and nobody would have an advantage over anyone else.

[margaret thatcher]

At least if PEDs were legal the poorer fighters wouldn't have to spend as much on masking

[Controversial]

Any perspective other than "F*ck it, let 'em take PED's" and I'm not onboard.

If everyone was on 'em, it would cease to be a disadvantage.

Testing for 'em is obviously questionable at best because they only seem to catch 10% of the suspected users. Either because they found a way to pass the test with masking agents or they found the right palm to grease.

Just let 'em all take PED's and let's wash our hands of the whole business. Fights wouldn't get cancelled, and nobody would have an advantage over anyone else.

Trouble is they give you extra strength, stamina and make you recover quicker, it doesn’t make your brain stronger so you will just risk more serious injuries and deaths if it were a free for all

[mickey1975]

He was juicing up on nandrolone bruh, failed multiple tests, Hughie got caught too

He failed one. He told the other to f uck off. He failed for coke. UKAD have admitted he never knowingly took nandrolone.

[banjo]

Nandrolone is a dodgy one as it's produced by the human body.

[liamlion]

He was juicing up on nandrolone bruh, failed multiple tests, Hughie got caught too

He failed one. He told the other to f uck off. He failed for coke. UKAD have admitted he never knowingly took nandrolone.

Erm, not quite. UKAD didn't admit anything. What actually happened is that they accepted Fury's account by way of settlement after it got legally very expensive for then when Fury started throwing money at it having decided he wanted to return to the ring. Let's not forget Fury received a 2 year ban out of it all. The fact he had elevated levels of nandrolone was upheld. Good old uncastrated wild boar...

[gilgamesh]

Any perspective other than "F*ck it, let 'em take PED's" and I'm not onboard.

If everyone was on 'em, it would cease to be a disadvantage.

Testing for 'em is obviously questionable at best because they only seem to catch 10% of the suspected users. Either because they found a way to pass the test with masking agents or they found the right palm to grease.

Just let 'em all take PED's and let's wash our hands of the whole business. Fights wouldn't get cancelled, and nobody would have an advantage over anyone else.

Trouble is they give you extra strength, stamina and make you recover quicker, it doesn’t make your brain stronger so you will just risk more serious injuries and deaths if it were a free for all

Considering that a great deal of the PED users already get away with it anyway, I don't really expect any death or serious injury rates would go up that much to be honest.

[Boxerbeetle]

Interesting article. Not much to disagree with in terms of content, although I’d personally prefer a more regular and stringent testing regime than simply making PEDs legal. Can’t see it changing one way or the other tbh, we’ll be left with this strange situation where 90% of fighters use but never get caught, so we can all pretend there’s no problem.

[Controversial]

Trouble is they give you extra strength, stamina and make you recover quicker, it doesn’t make your brain stronger so you will just risk more serious injuries and deaths if it were a free for all

Considering that a great deal of the PED users already get away with it anyway, I don't really expect any death or serious injury rates would go up that much to be honest.

Except if a fighter doesn't want to take it they are at more risk. So they either have to join in or risk fighting someone knowingly juiced up. If its legal then guys will just take more stuff and become more powerful, it would spiral out of control. Then what kind of message does that send out to kids watching the sport, just take drugs. Not a good road to go down.

I kind of get your theory but ultimately it will cause more injuries. Fighters will being able to take more punishment and deal out more punishment, that is just making head injuries more likely. They need to try and stamp it out completely.

[gilgamesh]

Considering that a great deal of the PED users already get away with it anyway, I don't really expect any death or serious injury rates would go up that much to be honest.

Except if a fighter doesn't want to take it they are at more risk. So they either have to join in or risk fighting someone knowingly juiced up. If its legal then guys will just take more stuff and become more powerful, it would spiral out of control. Then what kind of message does that send out to kids watching the sport, just take drugs. Not a good road to go down.

I kind of get your theory but ultimately it will cause more injuries. Fighters will being able to take more punishment and deal out more punishment, that is just making head injuries more likely. They need to try and stamp it out completely.

Never gonna happen. Somebody can always be bribed to look the other way.

[Controversial]

Except if a fighter doesn't want to take it they are at more risk. So they either have to join in or risk fighting someone knowingly juiced up. If its legal then guys will just take more stuff and become more powerful, it would spiral out of control. Then what kind of message does that send out to kids watching the sport, just take drugs. Not a good road to go down.

I kind of get your theory but ultimately it will cause more injuries. Fighters will being able to take more punishment and deal out more punishment, that is just making head injuries more likely. They need to try and stamp it out completely.

Never gonna happen. Somebody can always be bribed to look the other way.

You can say that about any sport though. The answer isn't to give in and let people cheat, you have to make the testing better and ban people for life when caught.

[gilgamesh]

Never gonna happen. Somebody can always be bribed to look the other way.

You can say that about any sport though. The answer isn't to give in and let people cheat, you have to make the testing better and ban people for life when caught.

But they don't do they? They won't will they?

I personally would rather see the athletes all natural as well because that way you're truly seeing what the human body is capable of.

I've just accepted that this ship has sailed. Even if you start trying to ban guys for life, they'll still do it because they'll just get better masking agents, and ways around the test.

Also I'm sure you notice that the rules aren't applied the same across the board. One guy may test positive for PED's and get suspended for a year or two. While Canelo tests positive for Clenbuterol and gets a 3 or 4 month slap on the wrist.

Grease the right palm or buy the right masking agent, and you're golden.

Unless you think the world is suddenly gonna start being run by completely honest people who can't be bribed...and if you believe that. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

[Boxerbeetle]

You can say that about any sport though. The answer isn't to give in and let people cheat, you have to make the testing better and ban people for life when caught.

But they don't do they? They won't will they?

I personally would rather see the athletes all natural as well because that way you're truly seeing what the human body is capable of.

I've just accepted that this ship has sailed. Even if you start trying to ban guys for life, they'll still do it because they'll just get better masking agents, and ways around the test.

Also I'm sure you notice that the rules aren't applied the same across the board. One guy may test positive for PED's and get suspended for a year or two. While Canelo tests positive for Clenbuterol and gets a 3 or 4 month slap on the wrist.

Grease the right palm or buy the right masking agent, and you're golden.

Unless you think the world is suddenly gonna start being run by completely honest people who can't be bribed...and if you believe that. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Even if the world was suddenly somehow run by completely honest people, boxing never will be

[gilgamesh]

But they don't do they? They won't will they?

I personally would rather see the athletes all natural as well because that way you're truly seeing what the human body is capable of.

I've just accepted that this ship has sailed. Even if you start trying to ban guys for life, they'll still do it because they'll just get better masking agents, and ways around the test.

Also I'm sure you notice that the rules aren't applied the same across the board. One guy may test positive for PED's and get suspended for a year or two. While Canelo tests positive for Clenbuterol and gets a 3 or 4 month slap on the wrist.

Grease the right palm or buy the right masking agent, and you're golden.

Unless you think the world is suddenly gonna start being run by completely honest people who can't be bribed...and if you believe that. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Even if the world was suddenly somehow run by completely honest people, boxing never will be

Exactly

And barring some apocalyptic event that eliminates 96% of humanity and forces the remaining survivors to completely rethink everything about life as they know it. There's no way the world will ever be run by completely honest people either.

[Controversial]

You can say that about any sport though. The answer isn't to give in and let people cheat, you have to make the testing better and ban people for life when caught.

But they don't do they? They won't will they?

I personally would rather see the athletes all natural as well because that way you're truly seeing what the human body is capable of.

I've just accepted that this ship has sailed. Even if you start trying to ban guys for life, they'll still do it because they'll just get better masking agents, and ways around the test.

Also I'm sure you notice that the rules aren't applied the same across the board. One guy may test positive for PED's and get suspended for a year or two. While Canelo tests positive for Clenbuterol and gets a 3 or 4 month slap on the wrist.

Grease the right palm or buy the right masking agent, and you're golden.

Unless you think the world is suddenly gonna start being run by completely honest people who can't be bribed...and if you believe that. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Cheating has always been rife in sports though. The mob fixed loads of fights, bent judges, bent refs, fighters betting on themselves to fall over, hometown decisions etc..etc.. You can't control lots of it. They need to invest in more testing and make it stricter, will it happen, who knows. I don't think rolling over and accepting it is the answer. Who wants a young kid start boxing where the road to the top is what drugs they can take.

Even if cheating was legal there would still be tiers where the top golden boy of boxing has some pharmaceutical company designing the best PEDS for them for the right price, then they will still have an advantage. I just think legalising it will open up a can of worms and ultimately boxing becomes a game of who can get hold of the best drugs.

[gilgamesh]

But they don't do they? They won't will they?

I personally would rather see the athletes all natural as well because that way you're truly seeing what the human body is capable of.

I've just accepted that this ship has sailed. Even if you start trying to ban guys for life, they'll still do it because they'll just get better masking agents, and ways around the test.

Also I'm sure you notice that the rules aren't applied the same across the board. One guy may test positive for PED's and get suspended for a year or two. While Canelo tests positive for Clenbuterol and gets a 3 or 4 month slap on the wrist.

Grease the right palm or buy the right masking agent, and you're golden.

Unless you think the world is suddenly gonna start being run by completely honest people who can't be bribed...and if you believe that. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Cheating has always been rife in sports though. The mob fixed loads of fights, bent judges, bent refs, fighters betting on themselves to fall over, hometown decisions etc..etc.. You can't control lots of it. They need to invest in more testing and make it stricter, will it happen, who knows. I don't think rolling over and accepting it is the answer. Who wants a young kid start boxing where the road to the top is what drugs they can take.

Even if cheating was legal there would still be tiers where the top golden boy of boxing has some pharmaceutical company designing the best PEDS for them for the right price, then they will still have an advantage. I just think legalising it will open up a can of worms and ultimately boxing becomes a game of who can get hold of the best drugs.

The heart of succeeding in sports is still and always will be learning and perfecting your craft. PED's aren't just gonna magically make you a good fighter. They just help you maintain your athleticism when your prime would probably be slipping away from you without assistance.

I doubt amateurs and novices are on PED's the way the guys at the top are because for one thing they can't afford the sh*t, and for another it's more important to just learn the tricks of the trade in those early days in the sport.

[Boxerbeetle]

Just think...instead of arguing about Fury/Joshua or Frank W/Eddie or BT/Sky, we could be debating who is the best P4P chemist in boxing. I’m on Team Heisenberg

[gilgamesh]

Just think...instead of arguing about Fury/Joshua or Frank W/Eddie or BT/Sky, we could be debating who is the best P4P chemist in boxing. I’m on Team Heisenberg

Nobody cares honestly.

People trying to cut down a guy that beat their guy will use the 'ol "Oh yeah he was on PED's excuse" but when you're rooting for the guy, it doesn't matter what he was on.

People tend to pick and choose when PED use offends them.

I've decided it simply doesn't bother me at all.

[Controversial]

Cheating has always been rife in sports though. The mob fixed loads of fights, bent judges, bent refs, fighters betting on themselves to fall over, hometown decisions etc..etc.. You can't control lots of it. They need to invest in more testing and make it stricter, will it happen, who knows. I don't think rolling over and accepting it is the answer. Who wants a young kid start boxing where the road to the top is what drugs they can take.

Even if cheating was legal there would still be tiers where the top golden boy of boxing has some pharmaceutical company designing the best PEDS for them for the right price, then they will still have an advantage. I just think legalising it will open up a can of worms and ultimately boxing becomes a game of who can get hold of the best drugs.

The heart of succeeding in sports is still and always will be learning and perfecting your craft. PED's aren't just gonna magically make you a good fighter. They just help you maintain your athleticism when your prime would probably be slipping away from you without assistance.

I doubt amateurs and novices are on PED's the way the guys at the top are because for one thing they can't afford the sh*t, and for another it's more important to just learn the tricks of the trade in those early days in the sport.

No of course PEDS don't give you skills you don't have but they do make you physically stronger and recover quicker. Fighter A might beat fighter B if both on level pegging but maybe not if fighter B is juiced up and fighter A isn't.

If you legalise it some amateurs will take it, there will be an amateur star who is lined up for being the next big thing in the pro ranks and they will be given PEDS. You can't control most things in the world but legalising everything isn't the answer, you still need rules.

[Black Sam Bellamy]

Are PEDs as prevalent in UK boxing as this article suggests ?