BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-BLOOD and urine tests continue to be an issue of contention that blocks a potential super-fight between welterweights Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., which was originally scheduled to take place on March 13, 2010.
The most recent development in negotiations for the fight has seen the Nevada State Athletic Commission demanding both fighters submit urine tests within 48 hours in an attempt to move contract negotiations forward.
“I don't know if this will help the chances of the fight happening. But with all this talk of drug tests, let's actually do one,” Commission director Keith Kiser said of the body’s decision.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who manages Pacquiao’s fights, said that if Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions did not agree to the test, a deal would soon be signed for Pacquiao to face junior welterweight Paul Malignaggi.
The Mayweather camp, however, continues to accuse Pacquiao of dodging Olympic style random blood and urine testing, which Golden Boy Promotions originally requested as a prerequisite to the fight.
In the latest statement issued by Mayweather’s camp, they said that they “made major concessions in many of these areas and we were optimistic that Team Pacquiao would do the same as it related to the request for random blood and urine testing, which Floyd Mayweather agreed to immediately”.
Original demands put forth by Golden Boy were such that a random testing would happen leading up to the fight and blood would be drawn on the night of the fight, but Pacquiao and Top Rank refused these demands, saying that their fighter would not have any blood taken in the 30 days leading up to the fight.
“Their ‘take it or leave it’ approach where blood testing would stop 30 days prior to the fight unless the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) approved differently is another indication that they may not want this fight,” Mayweather’s statement reads.
“Let it be very clear that nobody from Team Mayweather or Golden Boy Promotions is accusing Pacquiao of anything. But the reality seems to be that for whatever reason Pacquiao does not want to participate in random blood testing, which has already been deemed a harmless procedure that many current athletes are subjected to prior to and during competition.”
If the fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather were to materialize, it is anticipated that it could greatly surpass the record setting 2.45 million pay-per-view purchases that were recorded when Mayweather fought Oscar De La Hoya in 2007.
