Janne Romppainen

29.09 - Boxing is a sport for hard men. To be a good boxer, you have to have a lion-like heart, a ton of courage and a strong will to defeat your opponents. As we have seen time and time again in the history, without few exceptions the best fighters are just like that. Even the not-so-good boxers have to beat their fear to get in the ring, so obviously there is no room in the business for cowardice. How is it possible, then, that the officials of the boxing business have been like lambs when they have to penalize the fighters, especially if there has been a doping incident?

The question about doping and anabolic steroids has raised to the public during the last days when the news from Las Vegas have told us that the junior middleweight fighter Fernando Vargas has been caught from using illegal supplements after his unlucky title fight against Oscar De La Hoya. If the result is confirmed in the later b-test, it means that Vargas has broken the strict rules of the game and thusly he should be penalized. One waits eagerly, what kind of a sanction do they give to him. Because in the past, fighters have gotten away with these incidents almost like nothing.

Francois Botha was caught using doping in his successful IBF heavyweight title fight back in 1995. He lost his title, and that was it. The result of the fight stayed, he didn’t lose his purse, he wasn’t banned from the ring and he got a new chance to win the title almost immediately. Now what kind of a punishment is that, dare I ask? Another example: Mike Tyson didn’t pass his doping test either after his fight against Andrew Golota back in 2000. His ‘punishment’ was that the comission changed the result to a NC instead of the original second-round TKO. Now how much did this affect on Tyson? Everybody remembered that he had really beaten Golota, so changing of few letters in his record hardly meant a damn thing. Sometimes fighters have even gotten away by paying some little fine. For some comparison, if you are caught for steroids or any other illegal products for example in track-and-field, you are banned from the sport for two years. If you do it after that, you are banned for lifetime. Why can’t boxing business show same kind of guts?

There is a reason why anabolic steroids are illegal. It is not just because by using them you grow bigger and stronger. It is because they are dangerous for your body. Weightlifters have even died because of overdose of steroids. If your opponent takes them, it means that to compete evenly with him you have to take them too. Now that is risking other persons health. Moreover, using steroids in a contact sport such as boxing is even more dangerous then using them in weightlifting or athletics. This is because you use your grown strength and power to hurt your opponent. The opponent can’t be prepared to take punches that you couldn’t throw being natural. In the result, he can suffer some serious damage. This is why Vargas has earned a strict punishment from his crime if the result is confirmed. It matters not if he didn’t know that he had taken illegal supplements as he claims. Vargas is a professional athlete, he has to know what he puts in his mouth. He is responsible for that.

I just hope the boxing officials understand how serious this crime is and they have the guts to give for the cheating fighter a punishment that really has some effect. Otherwise, if they let him off the hook with a three-month suspension or ten-thousand dollar bill, they encourage fighters to use steroids in the future. So, boxing officials, Show Us What You Are Made Of!

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