Chavez vs Rubio Results: Rubio Says PEDs Could Explain Chavez's Stamina
by Scott Christ on Feb 5, 2012 3:21 AM EST
in Boxing News Analysis
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PrintAl Bernstein, whose Boxing Channel covered the Chavez vs Rubio festivities extensively this weekend in San Antonio, says tonight that Marco Antonio Rubio suspects Julio Cesar Chavez Jr may have had the aid of performance-enhancing drugs last night. Chavez defeated Rubio by unanimous decision in a hard-fought if somewhat sluggish bout in the HBO main event.
@AlBernstein
Al Bernstein Rubio surprised that with Chavz Jrs struggle to make weight- he still had such good stamina-says PEDs could be reason for that
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My response on Twitter was, "Ah, jeez..." to which Bernstein said, "Well put." I think we're kind of on the same page here. It's a big can of worms.
Look, I'm all for opening up the conversation about performance-enhancing drugs in boxing, but so much of this stuff is just hash-slinging and in no way "educational" or anything like that.
What Floyd Mayweather Jr has done has all but accidentally brought better testing ideas to the discussion in boxing, even if he's basically the only guy using them. That was the big opening of the doors. But Mayweather's crusade has educated nobody about anything, and has been entirely self-serving. He's changed nothing, and make no mistake, he has no plans to change anything on a large scale. He's not exactly petitioning Keith Kizer to make this standard procedure for fights in Nevada or anything.
With the lack of education comes something of a hysteria about this topic. I didn't like it last year when Andre Berto accused Victor Ortiz of using steroids or the like, and I don't like this either. I don't like it because to throw this stuff around with no proof is ridiculous and in some cases, quite damaging. I'm not saying I know Chavez is clean; I'm saying, as always, that I have no idea one way or the other. Only he knows, because we're all quite aware that unless someone is real dumb about what they're doing, the athletic commission tests aren't catching anybody.
[ Related: Donaire Outpoints Vazquez Without Flash ]
Plus, Chavez did visibly tire in the fight. He gutted through it, which would not be the first time we've seen a fighter who is completely zonked dig down deep and power his way through a fight. Chavez even said his legs felt weak late in the fight. He made quite clear his conditioning wasn't what he wanted it to be, and that it had a negative impact on him in the fight.
Rubio just has no reason to suspect this unless he knows something for sure, which it doesn't sound like he does. Brandon Rios failed to make weight in December and fought a hard pace for 11 brutal rounds with John Murray, and he showed up to his weigh-in looking like a dead man. It's a reckless claim by Rubio, simple as that.
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I can’t fgure out if I should be following Al, Rubio, Rachel or Jinkee on twitter.
Any suggestions?
Floyd has done for PEDS in Boxing what the Tea Party and Occupy have done for the rest of us. Made noise but little difference.
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali
All, except I don’t think Jinkee has a Twitter. Rachel’s is … interesting. Rubio’s has pictures of his trunks!
Bad Left Hook
"The internet has undermined professionalism in journalism, which is a good thing." - Bill James
The last guy to send a text with a picture his shorts was Anthony Weiner, the politician from NYC. Well not his shorts exactly but his junk.
My favorite headline was the NY POST when he refused to resign. It said: “WEINER. I’m Gonna Stick it Out!”
But I digress
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali
Well that’s pretty cool that Al responded to you…or maybe not. Maybe it happens frequently, but that sounds cool to me. Anyway, really hate the sour grapes and all this PED talk. Very bothering.
by TheDemolitionDan on Feb 5, 2012 4:05 AM EST via iPhone app reply actions
It’s not uncommon, but Al is one of the nicest of the media guys, and interacts with pretty much anyone that I can tell. Curt Menefee is another really nice guy, so nice that I actually felt kind of bummed when he left ShoBox even though he never made any real impression on me calling the fights.
Bad Left Hook
"The internet has undermined professionalism in journalism, which is a good thing." - Bill James
Not to change the subject
Any word on Nonito’s hands
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer"
---- Muhammed Ali
Speculated double fracture is all I’ve heard.
Bad Left Hook
"The internet has undermined professionalism in journalism, which is a good thing." - Bill James
I saw another tweet from Nonito that said the swelling has gone done and he might not be going to hospital.
"Occasionally, there is a boxing match that, in its demonstration of skill, courage, intelligence, hope, seems to redeem the sport - almost. Perhaps boxing has always been a sport in crisis, a sport of crisis."
by Oli Goldstein on Feb 5, 2012 8:27 AM EST up reply actions
if chavez was using peds, they werent working
he was clearly gassed
Is it really so reckless of Rubio given that Chavez has tested positive for a banned substance in the past? I know no one wants a sport where every single loser explains the result away by bringing up PEDs, but Chavez actually has a history on this issue. That alone should have warranted post-fight testing and could have deflated Rubio’s complaints, but the Texas commission doesn’t really tend to care about such minor things.
i’m leaning the same way as you bach.
isn’t testing standard practice after every championship fight?
i know that tests aren’t perfect by any means, but to forgo them completely seems worth mentioning.
don’t want every loser to cry peds, but when you face a guy who has been caught in the past, it makes sense to wonder….
Well then Mosley was on PEDs in the Margarito fight
Bad Left Hook
"The internet has undermined professionalism in journalism, which is a good thing." - Bill James
In my defense, I had not yet seen that there were in fact no post-fight drug tests (and glossed over it in bachwards’ comment, I guess, since he said it). That’s my defense. That or “I totally forgot” since that seems good enough.
Bad Left Hook
"The internet has undermined professionalism in journalism, which is a good thing." - Bill James
I really don’t believe that the chemistry of detection will ever outpace the chemistry of invention.
I have to wonder if, someday, PEDs will be legal, and athletes will be a category of people who choose to alter themselves for the purpose of playing sports, they will accept the consequences later in life of this decision, and the rest of us will watch them perform like some sort of biological machinery.
I do not mean, by the way, that I think there is any substance to this accusation, r to Mayweather’s accusations of Pacquiao.
What I mean is, are we really able to tell? Which rumors are ignored, and which are investigated? How many would end up being retroactive? How long would these investigations last? Would the mud-slinging ever end?
And so on.
Chavez was found to have used an illegal diuretic, furosemide before… and no testing… makes it seem complete and utter bullshit much less the open scoring… that no one knew about before or during the fight.
No fighter has a ABC org pandering so much to him.
"Boxing is dirty," said Casamayor. " The day I’m not ready to be a dirty fighter is the day I don’t fight anymore because it will mean that I have no heart for it anymore."
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