Oscar de la Hoya says he is “disgusted” about the boxing return of former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito.
To hear the Golden Boy tell it, the Mexican fighter is doing things the wrong way by coming back from a one year California commission suspension without going public and spilling his guts about the loaded handwraps he and trainer Javier Capetillo were nabbed with in the dressing room before a loss Jan. 24, 2009, in Los Angeles to admitted steroid user Sugar Shane Mosley.
Without such a "mea culpa," de la Hoya opined that Margarito should remain banned from boxing for life.
GBP rival Bob Arum plans to have “Margocheato” as he has not so laughingly become known as launch his comeback underneath the Joshua Clottey-Manny Pacquiao main bout at the Dallas Cowboys new stadium in Arlington, TX., on March 13.
I phoned the Top Rank top dog to tell him of his former charge’s public contempt for Margarito and Arum said de la Hoya should be careful in hurling any kind of rock.
“Who is Oscar to tell anyone to come clean?” Arum barked. “What I would say to Oscar is this, to sign the (confidentiality) waiver for the (Nevada) commission as suggested by (writer) Tom Hauser (on Secondsout.com). Let Oscar sign the waiver and let’s find out if there was ever any proof of Oscar using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).
“People who live in glass house, as the saying goes, should not throw stones.”
Here's how racingmeridian,com reacted to the explosive Hauser piece:
"Then, in a bombshell, Hauser implies that Oscar De La Hoya was a juicer and, moreover, had a failed test covered up by the Nevada Boxing Commission. He pleads with De La Hoya to agree to a release of his own Nevada records, a broadside Hauser would not deliver unless he was sure of his info. It’s a dark, sordid tale, and Golden Boy Promotions come off as villains. Any suspicion they about Pacquiao likely derives from their own stables active and persistent usage."
Hauser’s Jan. 17 column on this topic was answered, in part, by NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer who was quoted as saying he “doesn’t know what Mr. Hauser is talking about.”
Here's the pertinent parts of Hauser's lengthy article:
"But there is something very simple that Golden Boy can do to set an example. It involves the Golden Boy himself.
Oscar De La Hoya can show the world how a righteous PED-free fighter acts. In order to fully inform the public on the issues involved (and remove any hint of suspicion that he himself might not have clean hands) Oscar should waive his right to confidentiality and authorize the Nevada State Athletic Commission to release the results of any tests for performance enhancing drugs that he has taken in the past. The same waiver should authorize all present and past NSAC personnel and any other person with knowledge of the situation to discuss the test results with any media representative who inquires about them.
I’m not talking about Lidocaine (which Oscar acknowledges having taken when he suffered a cut prior to his 2004 fight against Bernard Hopkins). Nor am I talking about creatine (which Lem Satterfield, then of the Baltimore Sun, authoritatively reported that Oscar incorporated into his training regimen in 1999 when he was preparing to fight Felix Trinidad).
I’m talking about the possibility of something more.
Let me even suggest wording for the waiver that Oscar can make public and send to the Nevada State Athletic Commission:
“I, Oscar De La Hoya, hereby waive all right of confidentiality with regard to the past testing of my blood and urine for steroids and other performance enhancing drugs conducted by or on behalf of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. In that regard, I also authorize all present and past Nevada State Athletic Commission personnel and any other person with knowledge of the situation to speak openly with the media about such testing.”
To paraphrase: “C’mon, Oscar. If you have nothing to hide, then do it. It’s only a piece a paper. Just sign the waiver.”
Arum admitted that, without verification, rumors about de la Hoya being found to have a PED in his system on the basis of a postfight urine test are “hearsay.”
The rumors, which circulated long before Hauser put them on the Internet, are that this happened at a time when in boxing, as was once the case also in major league baseball, the use of steroids and other PEDs was not specifically prohibited.
Arum confirmed by story of Sunday that Margorito has completely dropped Capetillo (who continues to work with fighters in Mexico despite the California ban) and will now be trained by former world champion Robert Garcia.
Arum said Margarito will eventually face the media and answer any and all questions about the handwrap incident.
Parsing his words carefully, Arum made it clear that Margarito will stick to his story, as told under oath before the commission in California, that he was unaware that Capetillo had done anything illegal with the handwraps.
“He said it all under oath,” Arum said. “The commission found he was totally unaware of the facts as to the pads but they held him responsible as the fighter, as the captain of his ship so to speak. He has cut all ties to Capetillo. The inspectors in his dressing room also said they did not think the fighter knew what went on with the handwraps.”
Over to you, Oscar.
I don’t know about anyone else but I’m feeling glassy.
(mlcmarley@aol.com)
Source: examiner.com
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