BoxRec

“We had been approached by the Pascal camp about doing drug testing. We agreed to go to the people at VADA and do the testing. Jean Pascal said that he did not agree to go to VADA. He had originally offered to pay for it. He wasn’t going to pay for VADA. So we decided that since he didn’t want to pay the lower fee for the much more credible organization, then he must’ve not been serious about that, so there will be no drug testing,” said Kathy Duva, head of Main Events.
Pascal’s advisor Greg Leon responded:
“I was negotiating with Main Events’ attorney, Patrick English, and we were trying to land in a place that Pascal originally planned on, which is the protocol that he’s had in place since 2013. Out of the two athletes on March 14, only one of them has been tested randomly over 10 times, and that’s Jean Pascal. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t land on a mutual organization, but it is what it is. Main Events shouldn’t be caring what Pascal is spending on a test if he’s willing to pay for all of it.”....

Pascal all but confirmed that was indeed an issue on the call as well.
“They only test boxers. They don’t test any other sport. We are willing to deal with a real agency … so with that VADA bullshit, just leave it alone, because they’re not credible, because they only test boxers. And plus, VADA is with Victor Conte," said Pascal.
Kovalev did not take part in any drug testing other than the standard protocol administered by the New Jersey State Athletic Commission for his win over Hopkins, as Duva has been a proponent of “leaving regulation to the regulators” in the past. However, they claim they were willing to compromise in this case.
“He was willing to go to that agency [VADA] which is above reproach, and for some reason the Pascal people, who were told they could go to any agency he wanted but that Sergey was going to go to the one that he knew was the highest caliber and without any clouds or questions about whether it reported the results properly or took the tests properly, he was willing to go to that agency, and they said no. End of story. We’re not going to talk about it anymore," said Duva.

http://fightnetwork.com/news/54150:tens ... ev-pascal/

I do not care if Kovalev develops gills from all the PED's he could be taking (I'm not sure how gills would help him in boxing, but people always think all this crazy scifi sh!t about PEDs anyway so just go with it). Jean needs to grow up or pull out of the fight.

If Kovalev doesn't want PED testing he doesn't want PED testing. Fight him or don't, but quit being a f#cking whiner about it.

ReggieDiggs wrote:I do not care if Kovalev develops gills from all the PED's he could be taking (I'm not sure how gills would help him in boxing, but people always think all this crazy scifi sh!t about PEDs anyway so just go with it). Jean needs to grow up or pull out of the fight.

If Kovalev doesn't want PED testing he doesn't want PED testing. Fight him or don't, but quit being a f#cking whiner about it.

He shouldn't have a choice over it, piss in the pot and get it over with, any fighter that refuses is banned as a drug cheat.

expe wrote: He shouldn't have a choice over it, piss in the pot and get it over with, any fighter that refuses is banned as a drug cheat.

Thats silly. You can question them, but to automatically go from refusing a test to a cheater is a bit extreme.

The rules as they are don't dictate these regulations. If a fighter is cool with it fair enough lets go take some blood & do this. If he's not don't fight him if you have an issue with this. Jean needs to go write a letter to his congressman or w/e.

In a sport where someone can end up dead without any cheating whatsoever, I think testing for substances that give a fighter an unnatural edge should not be left up to choice.

I like Kovalev in the ring, and am not a huge fan of Pascal in or out of it. But Jean has the high ground here.

Sergei should test. And I do not agree with VADA being necessarily more credible.

ReggieDiggs wrote:

expe wrote: He shouldn't have a choice over it, piss in the pot and get it over with, any fighter that refuses is banned as a drug cheat.

Thats silly. You can question them, but to automatically go from refusing a test to a cheater is a bit extreme.

The rules as they are don't dictate these regulations. If a fighter is cool with it fair enough lets go take some blood & do this. If he's not don't fight him if you have an issue with this. Jean needs to go write a letter to his congressman or w/e.

Why wouldn't they take the tests? Not difficult to piss in a pot or have a little bit of blood taken, takes 5 minutes at most. If they won't take the tests, they have something to hide IMO. The fighter should have no choice about whether they are drug tested or not.

expe wrote: Why wouldn't they take the tests? Not difficult to piss in a pot or have a little bit of blood taken, takes 5 minutes at most. If they won't take the tests, they have something to hide IMO. The fighter should have no choice about whether they are drug tested or not.

If it ends up being that the fighter has no choice, fair enough. That isn't the reality today though thus we live in a free country thus you can deny this testing.

I'd imagine there's a million different reasons to not wanna be involved in this that isn't just about being a PED guy.

Its a hassle. Its kinda annoying to always have someone know where you're at as I believe all these sorta groups request. Gotta be extra attentive to anything a doctor gives you & hope he's right about what might make you come up dirty. Maybe even having to hire a special person to make sure anything you use isn't gonna make you test dirty. The potential on losing out on a payday & a ruined rep cuz false positives or silly non-malicious medicine a dr gives you can lead to you getting PED claims coming your way. Hell maybe his ex-gf/wife works for one of this group or has connections in the industry & dude is wearing a tin foil hat. Maybe dude IS scared of needles to steal the often parodied claim from Manny or Manny's people back in the day. I'm sure none of those excuses will be up to par with you, but really the only one you need to care about is its not required & no one if forcing Jean to fight him.

With all the crying Jean has done its a head game by Kovalev at this point. If dude is clean as f#ck I'd deny it myself just to get Jean not thinking about the fight & about silly PED concerns.

If testing was a big issue you negotiate this before you sign the contract not after. To top it off Kovalev sounds open to VADA testing if Pascal agrees to it. The way Pascal is asking for testing after contract is signed seems like sophisticated psychological warfare where you put you opponent on the defensive and then try to dominate him by creating a scenario where opponent either looks like cheater if he doesn't take test or comes under control of invasive testing under Pascals terms and conditions hence breaking down opponent psychologically.
I will be pulling for massive Kovalev KO here.

victor-romeo wrote:If testing was a big issue you negotiate this before you sign the contract not after. To top it off Kovalev sounds open to VADA testing if Pascal agrees to it. The way Pascal is asking for testing after contract is signed seems like sophisticated psychological warfare where you put you opponent on the defensive and then try to dominate him by creating a scenario where opponent either looks like cheater if he doesn't take test or comes under control of invasive testing under Pascals terms and conditions hence breaking down opponent psychologically.
I will be pulling for massive Kovalev KO here.

Good points.

Asking for testing after contracts are signed just means Pascal doesn't want his opponent to have any say in just who does this testing.
There is no other reason.

Pascal does not have the high ground here.
That fact that he only wants an organization of his choosing to do the testing makes it far more likely that he has an inside deal that ensures any positive tests from him will be promptly destroyed while any issues with his opponents drug test will be taken straight to the media.
If he was clean he would be willing to negotiate a mutually agreed upon lab.

In ANY sport the athlete is the LAST person that should have any say in drug testing protocol.
In a perfect world the commission would handle these things but that's not the way it works in boxing.

Perseus wrote:Asking for testing after contracts are signed just means Pascal doesn't want his opponent to have any say in just who does this testing.
There is no other reason.

Pascal does not have the high ground here.
That fact that he only wants an organization of his choosing to do the testing makes it far more likely that he has an inside deal that ensures any positive tests from him will be promptly destroyed while any issues with his opponents drug test will be taken straight to the media.
If he was clean he would be willing to negotiate a mutually agreed upon lab.

In ANY sport the athlete is the LAST person that should have any say in drug testing protocol.
In a perfect world the commission would handle these things but that's not the way it works in boxing.

WADA sanctioned organizations are recognized worldwide as the best in the field.

Even though VADA is much younger, there have been many more athletes claiming it is biased than the WADA labs.

It is not impossible that corruption exists in anything humans are involved in.

But I would respect Sergei a lot more if, after refusing the testing Pascal was going to pay for, had VADA do his own testing anyway.

Refusing, then doing nothing in its stead looks like excuse making, no matter how innocent he may be.

I said after the Hopkins fight that a PED scandal will eventually surface around Kovalev.

Hopkins is too much of a gentleman to accuse the Russian directly, but we all know what B-hop was intimating when he said following the bout, "I felt like a middleweight in there against a cruiserweight."

It won't be long before the chickens come home to roost.

IMHO, any fighter that refuses any type of real testing to detect PEDs has something to hide and therefore should not be allowed to fight.

The only way around testing should be if both fighters agree that they do not want to be tested and then if one chickensh*ts out of the fight after that then we'll know he's just a cowardly duck.

If Kovalev has nothing to hide then he should step up and take the tests, same can be said for Pascal.

...you can find fault with any line of reasoning, in this case though Kathy Duva should have found money and voluntarily pay for the VADA testing prior to signing a contract...

SenorPipino wrote:I said after the Hopkins fight that a PED scandal will eventually surface around Kovalev.

Hopkins is too much of a gentleman to accuse the Russian directly, but we all know what B-hop was intimating when he said following the bout, "I felt like a middleweight in there against a cruiserweight."

It won't be long before the chickens come home to roost.

That's a statement you don't read everyday

greg wrote:...you can find fault with any line of reasoning, in this case though Kathy Duva should have found money and voluntarily pay for the VADA testing prior to signing a contract...

No Pascal should have brought this up at the bargaining table instead waiting until after contracts are signed.
The ONLY benefit Pascal gets in waiting until after contracts are signed is assuring himself that he gets to go to a lab of his choosing and ONLY his choosing.

Perseus wrote:

greg wrote:...you can find fault with any line of reasoning, in this case though Kathy Duva should have found money and voluntarily pay for the VADA testing prior to signing a contract...

No Pascal should have brought this up at the bargaining table instead waiting until after contracts are signed.
The ONLY benefit Pascal gets in waiting until after contracts are signed is assuring himself that he gets to go to a lab of his choosing and ONLY his choosing.

...as I said there are problem with each line of reasoning...Kovalev team was challenged BEFORE signing the contract and was offered to pay for the test...so why not respond to this challenge and take the test?

Pascal is getting beaten to death for this PR stunt/smear campaign. The guy has Memo Heredia in his corner, yet had the balls to accuse Kovalev of PEDs. I don't know if there even exists a more hypocritical idiot in the sport than Pascal and his followers.

Perseus wrote:Asking for testing after contracts are signed just means Pascal doesn't want his opponent to have any say in just who does this testing.
There is no other reason.

Pascal does not have the high ground here.
That fact that he only wants an organization of his choosing to do the testing makes it far more likely that he has an inside deal that ensures any positive tests from him will be promptly destroyed while any issues with his opponents drug test will be taken straight to the media.
If he was clean he would be willing to negotiate a mutually agreed upon lab.

In ANY sport the athlete is the LAST person that should have any say in drug testing protocol.
In a perfect world the commission would handle these things but that's not the way it works in boxing.

Exactly. This kind of extra testing paid for by the fighters and promoters is a joke in general. But even worse is when used as a PR stunt like Pascal has. So now his bluff got called, and he looks stupid.

He's willing to pay for extra testing, but only with the agency of his choice. Not VADA, despite being cheaper and the only one that's caught cheaters and prevented them from entering the ring. Including Berto, then a client of Conte! Maybe it's no accident, Pascal is with Memo Heredia, whose clients never test under VADA.

koolkc107 wrote:

Perseus wrote:Asking for testing after contracts are signed just means Pascal doesn't want his opponent to have any say in just who does this testing.
There is no other reason.

Pascal does not have the high ground here.
That fact that he only wants an organization of his choosing to do the testing makes it far more likely that he has an inside deal that ensures any positive tests from him will be promptly destroyed while any issues with his opponents drug test will be taken straight to the media.
If he was clean he would be willing to negotiate a mutually agreed upon lab.

In ANY sport the athlete is the LAST person that should have any say in drug testing protocol.
In a perfect world the commission would handle these things but that's not the way it works in boxing.

WADA sanctioned organizations are recognized worldwide as the best in the field.

Even though VADA is much younger, there have been many more athletes claiming it is biased than the WADA labs.

It is not impossible that corruption exists in anything humans are involved in.

But I would respect Sergei a lot more if, after refusing the testing Pascal was going to pay for, had VADA do his own testing anyway.

Refusing, then doing nothing in its stead looks like excuse making, no matter how innocent he may be.

That doesn't mean a damn thing.
Being good at testing and being fair are nothing close to being one and the same.

It's interesting that Pascal has an issue with Conte being part of VADA.
Conte is just a guy who knows all the tricks of the PED trade, it's probably going to be tough to get anything past his organization.
Nope, Pascal wants nothing to do with that organization.
Meanwhile Kovalev has no issue with VADA but doesn't trust Pascal.

Crap like this is exactly the reason the boxers should have no say at all in drug testing.

greg wrote:

Perseus wrote:

greg wrote:...you can find fault with any line of reasoning, in this case though Kathy Duva should have found money and voluntarily pay for the VADA testing prior to signing a contract...

No Pascal should have brought this up at the bargaining table instead waiting until after contracts are signed.
The ONLY benefit Pascal gets in waiting until after contracts are signed is assuring himself that he gets to go to a lab of his choosing and ONLY his choosing.

...as I said there are problem with each line of reasoning...Kovalev team was challenged BEFORE signing the contract and was offered to pay for the test...so why not respond to this challenge and take the test?

They did.
Pascal balked when they wanted a different organization.

If anybody is hiding anything it is Pascal.
A boxer that is clean isn't going to be afraid of Conte but Jean wants nothing to do with him.

Perseus wrote:
They did.
Pascal balked when they wanted a different organization.

If anybody is hiding anything it is Pascal.
A boxer that is clean isn't going to be afraid of Conte but Jean wants nothing to do with him.

...but if they really wanted a different organisation, why didn't they go to it paying with their own money?

SenorPipino wrote:I said after the Hopkins fight that a PED scandal will eventually surface around Kovalev.

Hopkins is too much of a gentleman to accuse the Russian directly, but we all know what B-hop was intimating when he said following the bout, "I felt like a middleweight in there against a cruiserweight."

It won't be long before the chickens come home to roost.

Do you think Hopkins has ever used any banned substances?