By Lem Satterfield, FanHouseOn Wednesday, the Nevada State Athletic Commission will hold a hearing addressing its protocol for drug testing in general, and for steroids and illegal drugs in particular, "as a follow-up from the commission's examination" of the issues during its September 30, 2008, meeting, said director Keith Kizer.
The hearing is to involve input from various officials, including Travis Tygart, chief executive director of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, which implemented random testing of blood and urine on both Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley during the lead up to their May 1 clash won by Mayweather.
Mayweather had both blood and urine taken on March 22, April 1, April 13 and then on the night directly after the fight. Mayweather provided urine only on April 3, April 6, April 21 and April 24. Mosley provided both blood and urine on March 23, March 31, April 12 and directly after the bout on fight night. Mosley provided urine on April 3, April 6, April 21 and April 24.
Kizer spoke to FanHouse in this Q&A
FanHouse: What are the chances of random blood testing for steroids becoming a regular part of the protocol for the Nevada State Athletic Commission?Keith Kizer: Right now, we don't do that. Whether or not that would change, somebody would have to make a damn good case for that to happen. But that's one of the reasons that we have this meeting on Wednesday.
FH: How often do you have these hearings or meetings involving steroids testing protocol?Kizer: Well I had mentioned to you earlier that we had had one probably 18 months ago, in September of 2008, and that's something that we wanted to take a look at.
We had a lot of information from our last meeting from several doctors, for example, with Dr. Robert Voy, who used to be in charge of the United States Olympic Committee's drug testing policy.
And Dr. Voy had actually left there because he thought it was a little bit weak. So he resigned and he's one of the world's most knowledgeable experts. Dr. Raymond Kelly is out of Buffalo, New York, and he works for the state university out of Buffalo.
And Dr. Kelly is also a leading expert and he was brought in by Dr. Voy the last time. Dr. Louis Jambor came from Quest Diagnostics. Dr. Barry Sample is the main doctor at Quest. But Dr. Sample had gotten Dr. Jambor to call in on our last meeting, so the three of them -- Dr. Voy, Dr. Kelly and Dr. Jambor testified.
Lou Jambor is the director of toxicology testing on the West Coast for Quest Dianostics. Bill Bock was also able to send in some information. Bill Bock is the USADA's lawyer.
FH: What sort of information was helpful?Kizer: They have a really good wallet card that they give the athletes, where one side shows you what's allowed, and the other, what's prohibited. So this last meeting, and the feedback that we received from it, we figured that it was definitely something where we wanted to take a look at it again.
It's been about 18 months, or a little bit past 18 months, so we figured that now would be a pretty good time again. What comes out of that meeting, I don't know. I'm just as interested as anyone else to hear from the experts.
FH: What was on the wallet cards?Kizer: Well, for example, you see that steroids are always prohibited. Alcohol is only prohibited during competition. So it's a very good card. In fact, we were sent a bunch of copies of that to link it to our website.
FH: Can you give the website address where the general public can retreive information on what is and is not legal?Kizer: If you go to our website, you will see there is a thing that says FAQ, which means, Frequently Asked Questions. And you'll see midway through the FAQ, drug testing, and there's direct links to our information and to the World Anti-Doping Association lists and the wallet card that we were talking about. The website is http://boxing.nv.gov/New_FAQ.htm
FH: Were you given any explanation as to why Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley were not blood-tested closer than within 18 days of their fight?Kizer: We were never given any explanation about that. You would have to ask Travis Tygart that or Richard Schaefer or Leonard Ellerbe or someone else that question. I don't know why they did that after making such a big deal about it.
You'd have to ask them. I've not talk to anyone at Golden Boy or someone from Mayweather's camp. Travis Tygart has told me that they could have done a blood test at any time and at any day or every day of training camp. But they only did four.
And this is Travis talking, 'It just so happened that the last one for each guy was more than two weeks out.' But they could have done it 10 days out, they could have done it five days out, they could have done it two days out.
That's what he's telling me. I have no evidence one way or the other on that.
FH: What is your feeling about what turns out to look like a window where there was no blood testing?Kizer: I really have no feeling about it. The good thing, I guess, is that if you do it closer, you do run the risk of nicking a vein or infecting the arm, or something along those lines. Bruising the arm is something that might have caused the fight to be called off.
Whether or not that was the reason they didn't do it closer, I don't know. You'd have to ask them. It may be, it may not be. That's completely up to them to decide when and when not to do their blood test. That was a private contract that we didn't get involved with.
But that went on, and everybody tested negative, and that was the good news. I also understand that everyone passed their USADA tests, so that was great. So congratulations to all of the athletes. It was great that the fight was able to happen.
FH: Did anything more conclusive for you come out of USADA's involvement in the blood testing for Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley?Kizer: The good news is that we had a meeting with USADA at the end of March. Pat Lundvall, the chairman of the Nevada Commission, and I had a meeting with their chief medical officer, Dr. Larry Bowers, and, Travis Tygart. They came to Pat Lundvall's office and we met with them for a few hours.
We gave them some thoughts on how we thought USADA could do a better job, and they gave us some thoughts on how they thought that the athletic commission could do a better job. It was a very fruitful meeting.
Unfortunately, Travis told us that 'Our hands our kind of tied by WADA. We have to follow what WADA says or we'd lose their acreditation.' With the Nevada Commission, we don't have to worry about that.
If we think that there's a better way to do it, we're not hamstrung by WADA. However, I think that there is a lot that we can learn from WADA and USADA. We have a more limited situation because of our budget.
But they have been very helpful, and that's what this meeting is for, to examine ways that we can perhaps improve our drug testing protocol. At the end of the day, no one knows everything. So we want to hear some of the things from the experts.
It's interesting to hear some of the different tricks people play, be it from blood doping to EPO or other things as well. It's good to hear sort of the war stories from the guys in the field.
FH: Was the random testing for Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley a step in the right direction?Kizer: I don't know if it's either. That was a private deal they had with USADA and it didn't have anything to do with us. As long as it didn't interfere with our drug testing, and it didn't. There's no pro or con on that. The important thing was to make sure that it didn't interfere with our drug testing, and it didn't.
Both guys passed our drug testing requirements. Fighters have their right to do more testing, and as long as it doesn't interfere with the commissions, more power to them. Whether or not other fighters want to do it or should do it or don't want to do it, it up to the fighters.
Source:
boxing.fanhouse.com
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Interestingly, Floyd Mayweather was ranked higher – No. 31 – with earnings reaching $65 million from fights with Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez and fellow US fighter Shane Mosley.
