Chavez Jr tests positive for marijuana!

Chavez Jr after his loss to Sergio Martinez.

It has been confirmed by Top Rank, who promote Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, that the Mexican fan favourite tested positive for marijuana on the night of his defeat to Sergio Martinez.

Top Rank gave the following statement: "Top Rank is reviewing the situation. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr will have the opportunity to explain about the situation to the Nevada State Athletic Commission."

Executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Keith Kizer, told boxingscene.com that he cannot yet officially comment on the situation: "I cannot confirm or deny anyone until I get all the results... Hopefully I will have all of them by Friday afternoon."

This is the second time that Chavez has tested positive in the last three years. In 2009, he tested positive for Furosemide after his win over Troy Rowland. The result of the fight was changed to a no-decision and Chavez was fined $10,000 and banned for seven months.

The strange thing about this is the drug that he actually took. Marijuana is in no way whatsoever a performance enhancing drug so there is not really a reason to take it. It may calm you down but it's not a very good idea taking it on the day of the biggest fight of your career.

 

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97.

Lamont Peterson remains IBF champ!

The International Boxing Federation (IBF) have announced that Lamont Peterson will remain as their light-welterweight champion. 

Peterson failed a drug test during the build-up to his highly anticipated rematch with Amir Khan on May 19th of this year. He was also believed to have had an unusually high level of testosterone in his body when he won the IBF world title in his first fight with Khan. Usually if a boxer fails a drug test he is stripped of his title almost straight away but in this case it was different. Peterson and his team claimed that the hormone was used for medical reasons, but nobody really believed him. However, it has recently been confirmed by a independent physician that Peterson was using the drug for medical reasons and not to enhance his performance. 

There will still be a lot of people who brand Peterson as a drug cheat but it does help his reputation a little now that it has been revealed that he was not attempting to cheat in any way at all. 

Now that the American is the definite champ and ready to compete in the sport again, he has been told by the IBF that he must make a mandatory defence of his title against Zab Judah. Negotiations for the fight have already started and a date will be agreed soon.

Maccarinelli banned until October 18th!

Maccarinelli in his fight with Shane McPhilbin.

Former WBO cruiserweight world champ Enzo Maccarinelli has been announced as another fighter that can be added to the long list of drug-cheats in our sport. The 31-year old Welshman tested positive for methylhexaneamine (MHA) after his fight with Shane McPhilbin on March 23rd. At first we all thought it was just rumours but UK Anti-Doping have confirmed that it actually is true.

Maccarinelli has received a six-month ban that will last until October 18th, as it was backdated to April 19th.

"This is a timely reminder that no matter what your sport, under the principle of strict liability athletes must exercise extreme caution over what they put into their body," said UK Anti-Doping Chief Executive Andy Parkinson.

"With this in mind, Olympic athletes should be aware that they are now in competition July 16th until August 12th and could be tested at any time, anywhere. MHA is available in a range of supplement products, is banned in competition, and can often be listed under a number of different names."

"UK Anti-Doping continues to work closely with the British Boxing Board of Control to maintain the integrity of the sport."

This type of thing is becoming a regularity in our sport today. Maccarinelli is not the first well-known fighter to test positive for a banned substance and he will most likely not be the last. At first we just thought it was happening in America with the likes of Lamont Peterson and Andre Berto failing tests, but recently a number of British fighters have been testing positive.

Two things need to happen; many boxers claim that they didn't know what they were taking so somebody needs to take control and educate the fighters and their trainers on what is legal and what isn't. And then if anyone fails a test they should be banned for life. Once they have been educated properly, they have no excuse.

Nonito Donaire to engage in year-round drug testing!

Super-bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire.

Super-bantamweight world champion Nonito Donaire will become the first ever professional boxer to engage in year-round drug testing. The Filipino has enrolled in the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) according to his consultant Victor Conte.

When VADA was conceived, this was the ulitmate goal," explained Conte. "Whether Nonito has a fight or doesn't have a fight, he wants to go above and beyond anything Floyd Mayweather has done as far as drug testing goes. This is going to be true Olympic style 365-24/7 drug testing."

Donaire's next fight is against Jeffrey Mathebula on July 7th. Due to scheduling conflicts he will start the testing as early as July 8th (the day after the bout). Donaire's future opponents will also be free to use this style of drug testing.

"They will politely be offered a sponsorship eight weeks out so they will have the same opportunity as Nonito to show they have nothing to hide... It will have the highest standard of testing available. If they don't want the testing, the media will get to say what they think about that."

According to Conte, Donaire was more than willing to enrol in VADA and is happy to be a role model to all of the younger fighters and children out there so hopefully they will do the same.

"When it came to who would to step up and do this, Nonito doesn't ask people, he tells people," said Conte. "That's what he's about. He's a leader. He's going to make history here and help save boxing."

This is a great thing for a world class fighter to do. Although Donaire is not one of the most popular fighters in the world. He is relatively well known and could become even more popular in the future. Hopefully now, other fighters will be willing to engage this type of drug testing. As Conte said, this could be something that will help save boxing.

Andre Berto may not have been cheating!

A further analysis of Andre Berto's failed VADA drug test reveal traces nandrolone so minute that is almost certainly contamination, rather than an attempt to cheat. It could have even been picked mistakenly in some sort of food or supplement.

Gabriel Montoya revealed all there is to know last night: "Sources have informed me that analysis of Berto's positive tests results for nandrosterone (a metabolic byproduct of nandrolone) revealed "ultra-trace amounts of Nandrolone in the low parts per trillion range and consistent with contamination not intent... In other words, the amount in his system is so minute [very little] that it is highly unlikely that he intentionally ingested nandrolone but was rather contaminated by food or a supplement."


Now, this is definitely good news for Berto and his team but there's still going to be those people who never believe this story and will always have Andre Berto and his team down as drug cheats. 


One thing that has been proved, is that these VADA tests work very well and they will pick up any illegal substance that is in your body so there is no way of cheating the test. This is good for the sport but not always good for the fighters as they may not be taking these substances in an attempt to cheat. It's likely that they just don't know what it is or they don't actually even know they are using it, if they have picked it up in food, drink or supplement.


Victor Ortiz's manager Rolando Arrelano spoke out in support of the tests and thinks that this type of testing should be embraced by all.


"If you are reluctant to hire someone or something that's going to improve your sport and protect the safety of the fighter, then that's a problem. That's not what this is supposed to be about. The fighters are the essence of the sport. Without them, there's no managers, no promoters and no boxing content," said Arellano. "So as a sport, we need to take care of the people who provide paychecks for all of us. If you're not looking out for the fighter, I mean, if that's the case, then that means that you're condoning potentially illegal substances for the purpose of the almighty dollar."


All of this means one thing, boxers and their trainers are going to have to become experts and make sure they know whatever they are taking is legal. This is harder than it sounds because it's impossible to know sometimes. VADA are probably going to have to offer lessons and advice to those who want it so they can make sure that they know what is going into their body.

Peterson tests positive for banned substance!

Fans shocked by result.

The highly anticipated rematch between IBF and WBA light-welterweight champion Lamont Peterson and Amir Khan has been put in jeopardy after Peterson has apparently tested positive for synthetic testosterone in a random drug test.

Keith Kizer of the Nevada State Athletic Comission and Golden Boy CEO Robert Schaefer confirmed the positive result and are waiting for a letter from Peterson's attorney, explaining the result.

After reviewing the letter they will decide whether the fight will still go on and what would be the correct punishment for Peterson if he can not explain the situation. Schaefer is livid that Golden Boy were not informed earlier about the whole thing as they are now in a very tricky situation. They have two options; keep the fight on  and allow a drug-taking fighter to take part in one of the biggest fights of the year or cancel the fight or lose a very big amount of money.

Surprisingly, Khan and his team are still in full training and carrying on like there is nothing going on. According to reports, Khan's dad was the first person in Team Khan that was informed about the situation. Personally, I think that Khan will still want the fight to take place as it will earn him one of the biggest pay-checks of his career.

Ironically it was Peterson that actually requested the test a few months back, which is why there has been such a big investigation prior to the result.

I, along with most other boxing fans would just like the whole thing to be just sorted out as soon as possible. At the moment, the likely outcome will be that the fight will still take place on May 19th but Peterson will be stripped of his title and banned for a lengthy period of time after the fight.

Kendall Holt talks drug testing & Lamont Peterson: "Test me for anything!"

EsNewsReporting.com