Bradley and Marquez in dispute over drug testing, Arum wants Nevada to oversee tests

Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez met up earlier and expressed mutual respect at their press conferencein Los Angeles, but a bigger piece of news to come out of that event wasn't part of the official press release. Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times reports that there are some serious disagreements about what extra drug testing will be done for the fight.

In short, Juan Manuel Marquez wants Timothy Bradley to agree to weigh in on October 12, the day of the fight, no more than 10 pounds over his October 11 weigh-in weight. Bradley is bristling at this, but Marquez apparently might try to avoid drug testing by USADA, VADA, or someone else (more on that in a moment) if Bradley doesn't agree to that weight condition.

"What Bradley wants to do" (i.e., testing) "is not a rule for the fight and," a fight-night weight stipulation "is not a rule for the fight," Marquez said. "If I do it, he should do it. Bradley is too big."

"He's going to get tested," Bradley said. "If Marquez doesn't get tested, then no fight. If I'm doing," testing by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the Voluntary Anti-Doping Assn., "then he needs to do both, too."

Promoter Bob Arum wants to pay the Nevada commission to handle the testing, including CIR testing for testosterone. More or less, it sounds like Arum wants the VADA-level testing, but for Nevada to oversee it, on his dime.

"Whatever the expense, we'll pay it," Arum said of the Nevada involvement. "They're the regulatory body. If VADA or USADA get a positive, so? But if the regulatory agency does, then they decide what to do with it."

On the one hand, I do believe that state commissions should be doing this sort of thing regularly, and that they should oversee it, but on the other hand, I also believe there's some conflict of interest if the promoter -- a person or company whose sole job is to make the fight sound as good as possible, and lying through their teeth about it if necessary -- pays for that testing. It just seems like a sketchy grey area, at best, at least in my opinion. Obviously, along with the promoters not wanting to lose a fight, state commissions don't, either, especially big fights like this that bring money into their state, particularly with gamblers in Vegas hitting town for big fights. I'm not saying this specifically about Arum or Keith Kizer or anyone, I don't like the idea period.