By NICK GIONGCO, Manila Bulletin
Oscar De La Hoya said on Wednesday that if Manny Pacquiao insists he is clean, he must submit himself to Olympic-style drug testing.
“C’mon. It’s only a little bit of blood. If you have nothing to hide, then do the test,” said De La Hoya in his blog in the on-line edition of The Ring magazine a day after it was announced that the proposed March 13 showdown between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather was in danger of being scrapped for the Filipino’s disagreement with a drug-testing procedure being demanded by Mayweather.
De La Hoya, who lost his farewell fight to Pacquiao in December 2008, says Mayweather is submitting himself to the same tests to show that he doesn’t use performance-enhancing substances.
De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) is representing Mayweather in negotiations with Pacquiao’s promotional banner Top Rank, wonders why Pacquiao, regarded as the world’s best boxer pound-for-pound, “is afraid of needles and having a few tablespoons through random testing in the three months leading up to the fight.”
“If Pacquiao, the toughest guy on the planet, is afraid of needles and having a few tablespoons of blood drawn from his system, then something is wrong. The guy has tattoos everywhere; he’s tattooed from top to bottom. You’re telling me he’s afraid of needles?”
Pacquiao says the urine test being conducted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission is more than enough to determine if he is drug-free or not, but De La Hoya says it is not so.
“And the idea that urine tests can detect HGH [Human Growth Hormone] is wrong. I talked to Travis Tygart, CEO of the USADA. He testified before Congress that anyone who says HGH can be detected by a urine test is mistaken. It can only be detected by a blood test.”
For the fight to be saved, De La Hoya advises Pacquiao to agree to undergo such tests.
“So you have to do the blood work. If Pacquiao doesn’t want to do this and risk a possible $40-million payday because he’s afraid of needles or believes he’ll be weakened by blood tests, then that raises question marks,” said De La Hoya, who has fought two fighters who have tested positive for banned substances, Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas.
“Now I have to wonder about him. I’m saying to myself, 'Wow. Those Mosley punches, those Vargas punches and those Pacquiao punches all felt the same.' I’m not saying yes or no [about whether Pacquiao might be taking performance-enhancing drugs]; I’m just saying that now people have to wonder: 'Why doesn’t he want to do this? Why is it such a big deal.'”
De La Hoya, who had once inked Pacquiao to a promotional contract that was later rescinded owing to a technicality, stresses that Pacquiao’s refusal is being looked at differently.
“A lot of eyebrows have been raised. This is not good at all.”
If Pacquiao says he is deathly-afraid of needles, De La Hoya has a piece of advice.
“I believe Mayweather wants to do the right thing, to get tested properly. He’s not doing it to harass Pacquiao; that’s garbage. I would say to Pacquiao:
“'Do the test. Do it because it’s only a couple of tablespoons. Needles don’t hurt. Just look away when they put the needle in your arm.'” Besides, De La Hoya articulates, “he’ll probably lose more blood in the fight than the blood being drawn for the test.”
Source: mb.com.ph
No comments:
Post a Comment