Pacquiao vs Marquez: Marquez Coach Linked to Steroids Adds to Joke of Sport

Boxing at one time was a respected and prestigious sport that people rushed home to watch fights, or made their fighters legendary figures that were bigger than the sport. 

In it’s most prized days the most controversial thing about the match was what Muhammad Ali was saying about Joe Frazier or George Forman. 

There were times, where people would rush home from whatever they were doing, just so they could watch the beginning of a Mike Tyson fight. Because, if they happened to miss the first round or two, they would miss a Tyson knockout and the fight would be over. 

Back then, the story pre-fight, during the fight and post fight was about the boxers and not the circus that happens pre-fight, during the fight or after the fight, as it is now. 

Now, the stories coming from fights are about an ear bite, or what a boxer like Floyd Mayweather said to an 80-year-old man during an interview. 

The story is, what did a boxer do during the the weigh-in, or when Tyson was in his last years of his career, people would look forward to what he would do pre-fight, more so than the fight itself. People would say, “Did you see what Tyson did to Lennox Lewis in the press conference?” Or, “Did you see Tyson go off on reporters?”

The Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight, for all the lead up to this match next week, was about the two fighters.

It was Juan Manuel looking to be become the first person to defeat Pacquiao. But now, the fight has a cloud of suspicion of steroids over it, as Marquez has hired a new conditioning coach, Angel Hernandez, also known as Angel (Memo) Heredia, that has supplied steroids to track and field athletes, Marion Jones and Tim Montogmery. Hernandez then became a key in the government's case against BALCO and that put the founder of the company, Victor Conte, in jail. 

Hernandez’s involvement with the BALCO case implicated dozens of other athletes as users of PED’s (performance enhancing drugs.) 

Marquez is denying that he didn’t know anything about Heredia’s past, “I’ve worked very hard and I’m not going to stop training and getting ready for the fight,” Marquez said. “If they want to do whatever doping or drug testing that they want to do, Olympic-style, or whatever they want to do, I’ll do it. I’m prepared. Just as long as (Pacquiao) does it, too.”

Now, instead of it being one of the greatest upsets in boxing history, if Marquez does beat Pacquiao, it will have questions as to what was Marquez on, instead of him being a better fighter on that night. 

Gather around people, next week the circus is back in town, as Pacquiao and Marquez should not disappoint. 

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