Is Manny Pacquiao a Cheater?

Manny Pacquiao has taken a lot of flak, in the last few months especially, for his suspicious attitude concerning drug testing and his potential megafight against Mayweather. In fact, the whole reason the fight didn’t happen in the first place was because Pacquiao refused to agree with Mayweather’s Olympic-style drug testing.

Many believe that the stringent drug testing is a devious tactic by Mayweather to back out of a fight that many believe he will lose—but I really don’t think that’s the case.

Floyd is a lot of things, but scared isn’t one of them. "Greedy" is a term more appropriate to his character. Just like his alias, “Money,” he’s all about the cash. He’d probably fight Leila Ali if he thought it would get more than one million pay-per-view buys.

Nonetheless, Mayweather has a right to be skeptical of Pacquiao’s rapid weight gain. No other boxer besides Oscar De La Hoya has jumped six weight classes and won a belt in each. Most people disregard all the steroid and performance enhancing drug (PED) allegations surrounding Pacquiao simply because Mayweather is one of the accusers.

Look, everyone knows Mayweather is the guy everyone loves to hate, but let’s look at the facts.

First off, for those who don’t know, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight has been scheduled for November 13th—if both sides can agree to terms.

Pacquiao has compromised with Mayweather a little. He hasn’t dropped the libel suits against Mayweather or his family, but he has agreed to submit a blood test 14 days before the fight.

However, this still isn’t good enough for Mayweather’s drug testing, which requires both fighters to draw blood the day of the fight. Pacquiao’s excuse for not accepting the terms of the Olympic-style drug testing: He thinks drawing blood will weaken him before the fight.

Sounds fishy to me.

Pacquiao hasn’t said much about the allegations, himself. Instead, he’s decided to let his promoter Bob Arum and trainer Freddie Roach speak for him. Roach said that Pacquiao is such a clean-cut fighter that he doesn’t even know what PEDs are. Pacquiao might not know what PEDs are, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not taking them.

Roach should be all too familiar with these kinds of allegations since some of his previous fighters have been involved in them, including infamous steroid user James Toney. It’s also worth noting that Roach also trained De La Hoya, who jumped six weight classes as I’ve mentioned previously.

However, all of these claims are assumptions and speculation.

The truth is that Pacquiao has passed every drug test that he’s taken thus far, including two urine analyses the day of his fight against Joshua Clottey. Does this automatically prove Pac Man's clean? Of course not.

There are several different PEDs that can disappear from the human body over the course of 14 days. For that reason, I don’t expect for the Mayweather-Pacquiao superfight to be in the books until Pacquiao consents to the rigorous drug testing needed to make the fight happen.

So fight fans, don’t get your hopes up for the fight of the millennium just yet. Negotiations have a long way to go, but let’s be glad that both fighters are open to the idea of fighting again.