Roid Rage: Shane Mosley’s Clouded Status in Boxing
By Hermilando “Ingming” Duque Aberia
Shane Mosley’s last two fights argued against his future Hall-of-Fame status. He just made it hard for the fans to recall that he beat the one who had defeated the best boxers in six different weight divisions he competed in.
Not too long ago, Shane had beaten “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya not once, but twice.
Having said that, is it then time to forget Shane Mosley?
Shane as a professional fighter, not a few would say yes. In fact some boxing commentators have already done so along that line of thinking.
But as an athlete and one who has yet a big stake in the sports of boxing, my view is that Sugar Shane has something more—a lot more—to contribute.
For one, I think he has stories to tell that can clear the air, as it were, insofar as use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) is concerned. This is one topic where he is authority—or at least has the competence to do so (perhaps more than anybody else), having been once involved in a controversy which cited him as a PED-user (interestingly at a time when he fought De La Hoya).
If it was for me to ask, I’d appreciate Mosley’s educating the boxing public as to what effect PEDs may have on an athlete like him.
Do PEDs really give boxers undue advantage over their opponents?
Does any advantage have a corresponding (maybe unseen) cost?
Do PEDs compromise one’s longevity like it apparently did to him?
From a boxer’s psychological perspective, those questions beg answers in the light of what Sugar Ray Leonard’s comment at the time the first Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather negotiations collapsed under the weight of unresolved PEDs-related issues. Sugar Ray said, undoubted in jest, that “if I were Mayweather, I would take the fight, let Pacquiao have as much drugs as he wants, and collect my 40 million”—or something to that effect.
But why would Sugar Ray say that?
Was it frustration over the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight not being made? Was it a prizefighter’s (one who made millions in his time) tactful reminder to the Mayweathers that the PEDs issue was hardly tenable? You surely would have your own thoughts on that. I have mine. I really don’t know what goes on in a boxer’s mind, but my own reading of Sugar Ray sounds like PEDs are overrated.
From a clinical standpoint, those questions are, in my view, equally relevant. Not much is publicly known, for example, about what side effects PEDs bring to their users.
Do they make bums-in-the-making out of future Hall of Famers five years after taking them?
In an article, Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D., explains how PEDs work. There are basically six types of drugs that are supposed to lift performances of athletes to a higher level (some of which are legal and some are illegal). These are drugs that (1) build mass and strength (examples are anabolic steroids); (2) stimulate testosterone production (examples are luteinizing hormones, human growth hormones or hGH, and insulin); (3) increase oxygen in tissues; (4) mask pain; (5) act as stimulants, relaxants and weight controllers; and (6) mask drug use.
In analyzing these drugs, Freudenrich cites not only the potential benefits they offer to athletes but also the side effects their users risk of having. The risks include enlarged internal organs, especially heart, kidneys, tongue and liver (for hGH use), among many other undesired outcomes. They can therefore take their toll on the overall health of an hGH user as he or she ages.
Hence both the psychological make-up of athletes in general as they relate to the issue of PEDs and the clinical implications of PEDs use are subjects that Shane Mosley can talk authoritatively about.
For another, Mosley’s status as an active competitor, not to mention his yet-excellent overall resume backing him up, makes him a relevant and credible source of information. Of course no one can ask, much less force, him to be such a messenger. But in the meantime, he can be—and is—the message.
In the twilight of his boxing career, Shane may not generate the same brand of excitement for his fans the way he used to. Prior to 2008, he ranked second to Mike Tyson in my list of top knock-out artists, pound for pound. But with stories he can tell (particularly in relation to PEDs) he remains a force in the boxing world, if not in the boxing ring.
To read more articles from Hermilando