By Kevin Mitchell, guardian.co.uk
Amir Khan has again defended his stablemate Manny Pacquiao from accusations of drug-taking. If the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world was using them, he says, then suspicion must fall on him as well.
Khan is still in Vancouver awaiting a US visa before he can fly to Los Angeles to prepare for the second defence of his WBA 10-stone title against the New Yorker Paulie Malignaggi at Madison Square Garden on 15 May.
Before he left, he told the trade paper Boxing News that he is so familiar with Pacquiao's training regime it would be impossible for the Filipino to be taking performance-enhancing drugs without him knowing about it.
"I've seen how Manny trains and I've trained with him myself," Khan said. "I keep up with him in the mornings when we run, on the pad sessions and in the sparring sessions, so does that mean I'm on drugs as well?"
The Bolton fighter said their trainer, Freddie Roach, is strongly against the use of performance-enhancers. "I think it's just that Freddie's got two fighters in the camp who are very fit and very athletic. We get pushed and keep up with our training and we train very hard. That's why when we get in the ring it seems easy.
"There's other fighters who come to the gym and can't keep up with me, and can't keep up with Manny because they're not as athletic as us.
"I think when someone's doing well in the game, there's always negative things that people pick up on but I think it's just nonsense. And another thing, Freddie wouldn't allow it. If he found out a fighter was doing that, he'd throw them out of the gym, if he found out they were on drugs, because he's totally against it."
Source: guardian.co.uk
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