
Reports of USADA’s strange partnership with Floyd Mayweather look damning. A recent expose from Thomas Hauser on the relationship between USADA and Mayweather uncovered stories that point to USADA granting Mayweather a TUE exemption for pre-fight IV use after his bout with Manny Pacquiao. It also suggests Mayweather was given a number of “inadvertent use waivers” following positive “A” sample drug tests. Since that initial report, USADA has responded with a broad rebutall, accusing much of Hauser’s story of being false and relying on “self-interested sources,” they did not however refute the general chain of events that had Mayweather using IVs pre-fight and applying for a TUE afterward.
Manny Pacquiao has since responded to these allegations leveled at Mayweather. Given that Pacquiao once took Mayweather to court for defamation over allegations Mayweather made that Pacquiao was a PED user himself, it’s not hard to guess how the Filipino boxer is taking these recent revelations:
@MannyPacquiaoTR statement. “Truth finally came out and I was vindicated. Mayweather camp used to accuse me of using PED…
— @abaccordero (@abaccordero) September 10, 2015
“Now look at what happened. I hope Floyd Mayweather would learn a good lesson out of it,” says @MannyPacquiaoTR @PhilippineStar
— @abaccordero (@abaccordero) September 10, 2015
Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s longtime promoter has also responded to the reports in a statement to BoxingJunkie.com saying “It is very disturbing. Yeah, I am outraged. But I don’t know what we can do about it. I can’t change the result.”
“I am not casting aspersions at anyone. But I have always wondered why does (Mayweather) leave it to the last minute before he announces the fight.”
USADA is currently one of the world’s leading 3rd part drug testing organizations, but the stories of their preferential treatment surrounding one of the world’s richest athletes is quickly becoming a major black mark on their reputation. They’ve suggested that the “multitude of errors” in this story will be “addressed at the appropriate time.” In the meantime, Floyd Mayweather is going to be left dealing with the fallout with his next fight just around the corner.
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