Mum's the word: How many times did USADA tests Mayweather for the Super Fight

Lost in the hoopla of the Super Fight is the story about the USADA-led drug testing protocol for the fight. In this day and age of illegal performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), the deafening silence on the Mayweather front is quite intriguing, considering the media mileage that he got when he launched his so-called crusade to clean up the sport of boxing some five years ago.

The camp of Manny Pacquiao has stated that the Filipino pugilist has been tested thirteen times already, with the latest one occurring just hours before Friday's weigh-in for the Super Fight. On the other hand, we have no information on the side of Mayweather about his United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) visits. And unlike in past editions of Showtime's All Access that showed Mayweather being visited by the drug testing team before previous fights, the pre-fight Inside Mayweather Pacquiao did not show any clips of the USADA team paying a visit to the pound-for-pound king to collect his blood and urine specimen.

For about five years, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his minions regularly attributed the failure of the "super fight" with Manny Pacquiao to come to fruition back in 2009 to the Filipino superstar's refusal to take an "Olympic-style drug testing." For years, "Take the test! Take the test!" was Mayweather 's battle cry -- he claims that he wants a clean fight and a level playing field against any fighter that he will face.

But whether he was serious enough about cleaning up the sport, or if it was just a ploy to avoid Manny Pacquiao, we now all have our own conclusions and opinions that will warrant another article. Suffice it to say, some of the boxers who were caught doping after the much-publicized call for random Olympic-style drug testing were members of The Money Team (TMT).

Manny Pacquiao, since being kayoed by a 'suspicious' Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth fight, has undergone and passed drug-testing for most of his succeeding fights under the auspices of the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA), hands-down the best entity that administers drug testing in the fight game today.

The Mayweather-Pacquiao Super Fight has been dubbed as the "Fight of the Century." Interest in the fight from both die-hard and casual fans is at an all time high, and the corresponding media coverage is on overdrive. What better way to promote Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s advocacy of a clean sport that can reach across the board than his showdown with his bitter nemesis Manny Pacquiao?

Sadly, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., whether it was by design or not, failed to capitalize on the opportunity that was presented on his lap to further enlighten the boxing world of the benefits of systematic drug testing in boxing. Not only was he silent about the visits of the USADA team during his training period, but also he employed people with checkered pasts who were in one time or another linked to the illegal performance-enhancing drug trade.

It was alleged by some boxing observers and writers alike that chemist and an admitted steroid dealer Angel "Memo" Heredia, the architect behind Juan Manuel Marquez's hulking transformation preceding the fourth Manny Pacquiao fight, is in bed with the Mayweather camp for this fight.

Alex Ariza, the erstwhile strength and conditioning coach of Manny Pacquiao who, on several occasions, has been credited by Mayweather for Pacquiao's success, has hinted about the S&C's role in Manny Pacquiao's fist power on several occasions, including in a May 2, 2012 interview with David Mayo of MLive: "Eventually, it'll come out. The truth's going to come out now. I told you. Everybody's about to point the finger- 'He's done this, and he done that, and he was taking this, I didn't tell him to do it, you told him to do it.' That's what everybody is going to say."

Bob Ware, Mayweather's cornerman since the Marcos Maidana rematch, was once implicated by TMT boxer J'Leon Love as the source of the banned diuretic hydrochlorothiazide that he took before his fight against Gabriel Rosado. Following the fight, the Detroit boxer was suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission for six months, fined $10,000 and had his contested split decision win changed to "no-contest." In a June 28, 2013 report by David P. Greisman of BoxingScene.com about the controversy, J'Leon Love "took a pill... without asking what it was... from strength and conditioning coach Bob Ware."

It is puzzling to many boxing observers why Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who has professed on many occasions that he wants to clean the sport of drug cheats and purveyors, would remain mum before the biggest fight of his career on the testing regimen that the USADA administered on him, which could have potentially immensely helped enlighten people in and around boxing about the process.

It is mind-boggling to the boxing world that Floyd Mayweather, Jr. would still surround and associate himself with controversial strength and conditioning trainers and coaches whose characters are suspect when it comes to illegal PEDs, while at the same time wants to picture himself as boxing's poster child of Olympic-style drug testing.

As one commenter on an online boxing forum opined: "It is really funny that the one who was accused without proof of being on illegal PEDs is the one who is more open and vocal about the random testing for this fight than the one who proclaimed that he wants an Olympic-style drug testing to clean up the sport, who decided to be secretive. What's the real score, USADA?"

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*This articles was first published on Detroit Boxing Examiner.

Behind the Scenes: Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez III

Trouble in Paradise

Some ring observers have noticed that Manny Pacquiao was not in his usual self during his walk from the dressing room to the ring against Juan Manuel Marquez. Gone were the bright smiles, the happy hand gestures and that extra bounce on his feet that all characterized his ring entrances in the past. If one has watched Pacquiao's fights before, one will probably notice the difference in his demeanor.

It seemed that Manny Pacquiao was not 100% focused during the fight. There were things that were probably bothering his mind. Just days prior to the fight, there were some reports coming out of the Philippines that there was trouble in Manny Pacquiao's homefront and even in his camp.

There was this rumor or news that Pacquiao and his wife, Jinkee, were not in good terms because of his infidelities and were seeking an annulment. And to add insult to injury, there was another rumor going around that Pacquiao sired another baby from another woman, a 23-year-old culinary arts student. And given his recent preponderance for giving 'royal' names to his children, a lot of people believed the rumor, even though the alleged mother of the said child has come out and denied that the Filipino pound-for-pound king was the father of King Arthur (yes, that is the baby's name.) (Note: Buboy Fernandez, Pacquiao's trainer also had a son named King Arthur). It turned out that Manny Pacquiao stood as one of the godfathers of the child.

Then there was this report by Chino Trinidad on how cold Jinkee was to Manny Pacquiao as well as his rift with his strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, wherein he described the usually mild-mannered Pacquiao as 'very angry' and listed 'BlackBerry cellphones' and an 'expensive table glass top' as casualties of the said 'misunderstanding.' Alex Ariza eventually admitted that there were just some misunderstandings between him and Manny Pacquiao, and that they were 'now okay' just a day heading into the fight.

Now, it just makes us wonder why some of these so-called Manny Pacquiao supporters would propagate these kinds of issues or spin some twists on a plot unrelated to boxing, especially on the eve or just days before Pacquiao's major fight.

Whether the observations by the casual observers and the rest of the news reports are true remains to be seen.


*Continue reading 'Behind the Scenes: Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquezz III- HERE