Floyd camp softens stand on dope tests

For fear of the fight going down the drain, the camp of Floyd Mayweather Jr. has softened up a bit on its position that an Olympic-style drug testing be mandated on Manny Pacquiao to ensure a level playing field, Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) Chief Executive Officer Richard Schaefer said on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

“As long as there’s a blood test, as long as there’s a urine test and as long as it’s random, a [specificied] cutoff date is agreeable to us,” Schaefer told Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times. “We’re saying, ‘We’re OK,’ and we hope Pacquiao [and his promoter and trainer] are OK.”

Pacquiao and Mayweather have both agreed to face each other on March 13, 2010, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, but a demand by Mayweather that Pacquiao be subjected to Olympic-style testing was met with opposition by Pacquiao’s people, including promoter Bob Arum, who declared the fight dead a few days ago.

Pacquiao’s camp said the testing being conducted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) should be more than enough to determine if the Filipino pound-for-pound king is taking banned substances.

Schaefer also told ESPN’s Dan Rafael that “we are OK to move off USADA, “What we’re saying, and what is important to us, is four things – that the tests be random, that they include blood and urine and the time frame, meaning when do you stop the tests before the fight but know they will still be effective. Three of them we have agreed on –random, blood and urine. So now it is a matter of the two sides working out the specifics of the cutoff date to assure it will still be effective.”

Pacquiao lawyer Franklin Gacal was the least surprised over the new developments.

Speaking from General Santos City, Gacal said there’s no other choice but to make the fight with Pacquiao happen.

“I knew that they would revert back,” said Gacal.

Arum said if GBP petitions the NSAC that additional tests should be done on Pacquiao, he will respect it but cautioned that he will not allow Pacquiao to be tested during inappropriate
times.

“I will not let this kid get pushed around,” said Arum from his vacation spot in Mexico. Still, Schaefer said doing a compromise is a “two-way street.”

“The pressure is on Pacquiao,” he said. “They keep moving the goal post like they did with the $10-million weight penalty [if either fighter is over the contract maximum 147 pounds], which we agreed to. They didn’t think we would accept that. When we did, they had to find something else to make into a problem. So now they’re saying it’s up to the commission instead of wanting to negotiate the drug testing with us. I don’t want to hear that if the fight breaks up it was because of us. When they came to us with a $10 million weight penalty, they didn’t expect us to say yes. They thought we’d say no. So when we said yes, they had to come up with something else.”

“We are making compromises. It’s a two-way street. If they back off again, I will shut off my phone and spend the rest of the Christmas and New Year’s time with my family, and good luck to all of these fools,” said Schaefer, who represents Mayweather.

Source: mb.com.ph