Maybe boxer "Sugar" Shane Mosley is trying to change his nickname to "sugarcoat."
In a conference call Tuesday to publicize his May 1 fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Mosley said he had "always been a clean fighter," even though he has long admitted to using BALCO's drugs, most recently admitting as much last fall in a deposition for his libel suit against BALCO
boss Victor Conte.
boss Victor Conte."It's ridiculous now that the media wants to make me the poster boy of steroids, when I don't even know nothing about all that stuff," Mosley said.
But in a sworn deposition last Oct. 27, one of the very first questions Mosley faced was about the performance-enhancing drugs Conte sold him on July 26, 2003, a few months before Mosley beat Oscar De La Hoya in 12 rounds."Would it be fair to say in the weeks prior to that fight you took steroids?" asked Conte's attorney, Tom Harvey.
"The weeks, yes," said Mosley.
"Okay," said Harvey. "And would it be fair to say that you took performance-enhancing drugs in the weeks prior to the fight with Oscar De La Hoya in September, 2003?"
"Yes," Mosley testified.
Mosley in fact used BALCO's designer drugs "the clear" (the then-undetectable steroid THG) and "the cream" (a masking substance), and took a tutorial from Conte on how to self-inject EPO, a potent endurance booster. But unburdened by any oath yesterday, Mosley denied it yesterday.
"I never did that stuff," he said. "I never was on it really like that. I've always been a clean fighter."
Mosley also pointed out he never tested positive (the drug regimen Conte put him on was designed for exactly that purpose).
The vast gulf between Mosley's contradictory statements is the battleground of the $12 million suit that the fighter filed against Conte two years ago, right after Conte said he planned to publish a book that would prove Mosley knew exactly what he was getting that day at BALCO.
Their bitter legal war exploded last week after Conte left a failed settlement conference and posted to YouTube a video of Mosley's deposition showing Mosley admitting he knew the substance Conte sold him was EPO.
Mosley seemed annoyed by drug questions yesterday. Asked if it felt different to fight without BALCO's drugs, Mosley said it was a “stupid question.” His answer was gentler on Dec. 11, 2003, when he appeared before the grand jury investigating BALCO. A transcript of that testimony reviewed by the Daily News shows Mosley was asked the same question by a grand juror.
"I wasn't bruising a lot," Mosley answered. "And the impact of the punches were - I really didn't feel the impact of his punches."
Judd Burstein, the attorney representing Mosley who was present on the conference call, said that the quotes in Conte’s video posting were taken out of context, but other video segments that Burstein himself posted the next day don't seem to alter the message much.
"There's no point in talking about this," Burstein said, echoing Mosley's claim that the issue was seven years old.
Mosley, however, is the plaintiff in the case, and Burstein has helped him pursue it for two years, successfully derailing Conte's promised tell-all.
"The objective, the entire time, in my opinion, has been to drain me financially," says Conte. "Is that what justice is about? That he who has the deepest pockets wins, despite who's right and who's wrong?"
Source: nydailynews.com
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