Boxing News: Bob Arum 'outraged' at Floyd Mayweather IV report
Top Rank Promotion boss Bob Arum was “outraged” by reports that the undefeated boxing champ Floyd Mayweather injected illegal IV ahead of his May 2 match against Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao. The report revealed that the pound-for-pound king received two IVs the day before the mega-fight to reportedly counter dehydration.
Arum said the situation “is very disturbing,” but the Top Rank Promotion head honcho admitted his camp is clueless about their next action over the controversy.
"When we learned about this I was outraged,” Arum told ESPN. “What legal redress do we have? I have the information, our lawyers got it, but what were we supposed to do with it?”
Arum also revealed to USA Today that he did receive the notification that USADA, which had been contracted to oversee drug testing for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, granted “Money” a therapeutic use exemption retroactively. But because of the confidentiality clause attached in the contract with Mayweather, the 83-year-old boxing promoter decided not to publicise the matter.
SB Nation’s Thomas Hauser claimed on Thursday that Mayweather received two saline and vitamin C cocktails the day before his bout with Pacquiao. Although the substances contained in the IV were not prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, intravenous injections are banned by the organisation because it could “dilute or mask” the presence of another substance in the blood.
According to the 2015 WADA Prohibited Substances and Methods List, “Intravenous infusions and/or injections of more than 50 ml per six-hour period are prohibited except for those legitimately received in the course of hospital admissions, surgical procedures or clinical investigations.”
The report also stated that USADA collection agents went to Mayweather’s house after the bout’s official weigh-in to conduct a random unannounced drug test and found evidence of an IV being administered to the American boxer.
Meanwhile, Mayweather strongly denied reports about getting IVs before his record-breaking fight with Pacquiao. Mayweather said in a statement posted by @garnekmedia on Twitter that he did not commit any violation of the Nevada or USADA drug testing guidelines, insisting that he would champ the cause of being a “clean athlete.”
“As already confirmed by the USADA statement, I did not commit any violations of the Nevada or USADA drug testing guidelines,” Mayweather said in a statement. “I follow and have always followed the rules of Nevada and USADA, the gold standard of drug testing."
USADA also issued a statement on Twitter, branding Hauser’s professional boxing report as “inaccurate news.” USADA stated that it is extremely disappointing that “misinterpretation based on unsubstantiated rumours” questions the organisation’s integrity.
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