"Julian and I talked about it and we just wanted to be totally transparent with the drug testing and things like that. You know, he's a tough kid and he will fight anybody, but nobody wants to fight somebody that's on PEDs. We both just said why don't we just test with both agencies," stated Stephen "Breadman" Edwards, world-class trainer of jr. middleweight contender Julian Williams, who explained his decision to have his fighter tested for performance-enhancing drugs year-round by both USADA and VADA. Check out what else he had to say!
STEPHEN "BREADMAN" EDWARDS:
"You know what it is, Perc? Everybody don't say anything out in the open, but when you test with one agency or the other, there is always a naysayer on the sideline saying, 'Well those guys got this one particular group in their pocket!' And then somebody else will say that somebody has the opposing group in their pocket and certain guys doing guys' favors and things like that. So to eliminate all of that, see, there are guys that test, but nobody tests with both agencies. Also, I applaud anyone who has done any testing, I really do, but if you're not testing all of the time, even when you don't have a fight, is it really random? If you're telling people, 'Okay, I got a fight lined up, so now I'm going to start testing,' I'm no scientist, but I do know that you can reap the benefit of a PED and then cycle off and still reap the benefits of it throughout training. so to avoid any controversy...because I really believe that 20 years from now, they are going to open up the B samples of a lot of these guys and a lot of people are going to be shocked and surprised that some of the better fighters of this era were using. So many guys get publicity and noticed for doing the wrong things in the sport. I got a kid that's willing to say, 'I'll test year-round, it don't matter to me. I barely like taking vitamins. I'll test all the time. I think that a lot of guys that I gotta fight is messing around anyway.' So I told him, 'If we can get the sponsors together, we're going to do it.'
He's all for it. I'm glad he's all for it and I just want a clean sport. We don't have the platform that a lot of the bigger stars have. We are still trying to make a name, but I don't want anybody 20 years from now to say, 'Well, that kid was on PEDs because he knocked out this guy, he knocked out that guy, or he did 12 rounds too easy. How he have that kind of stamina and that kind of speed?' Everybody questions everything that everybody does in this era. I'm not singling nobody out. Like I said, I applaud anybody that does any type of drug testing, but I just believe that 70% of the guys in this era, the top echelon, top 10 type of guys, are messing around with PEDs. If you notice, Percy, they never catch anybody. Think about that. They never catch anybody important. It's always the guy coming in on the B-side. It's never the top guy. They never catch anybody. It makes me wonder, how is it that everyone assumes that this era is so full of dirty fighters, yet nobody's ever getting caught (laughing)? They'll catch a guy that's known, but it's never the A-side star kind of guy. That guy never gets caught. So hopefully we get a chance to do it, we get a chance to put our money where our mouth is, and we get to perform at the top level without anyone questioning our integrity.
I think the stage Julian is at in his career, this is the perfect timing for him to subject himself to this type of thing. People think every fighter should get tested. I don't think it's realistic. There are too many fighters and too many different countries involved. the platform is not big enough and it's too expensive to test everybody. But I do believe fighters that are fighting on premium networks, fighters that are in the top 10 and top 5, world championship level fighters should be entered in the random testing pool. And it doesn't even mean that those guys gotta get tested all of the time, Perc. You could discourage the cheating if they know that they are in the pool, if they know that somebody can knock on your door on any given day at any given time and say, 'I want urine or blood.' But if you are only doing it certain times a year, don't get me wrong, it's still a good thing, but it's not the same as doing it 24/7. Here is the thing, most of the times, these high-level guys fight only once or twice a year; at the most, 3 times. Lets just say conceivably you are a PED user. You got more time to take PEDs without being tested than you do to take it while you're not tested. Think about this, a training camp is only 8 weeks. There is 52 weeks in a year, so if you're fighting twice a year, that's only 16 weeks that you're being tested. What about the other 36 weeks that you're not being tested. Nobody talks about that, but I just think it's important, me personally. I'm not the only one with concerns, but I may just be the only person that will just say it. If you go down to the lobby or the bars at the venue of some of these fights and you talk to coaches, managers, or trainers, or just people in boxing, everybody has those concerns off the record. You will hear, 'Man, I think he's on something. John Doe too, I think he's on something.' And I always sit back and I say, 'Damn, why don't y'all get them tested?' You have to bring it to light and it seems like no one ever takes that next step. I don't know if it's complacency or laziness.
Boxing is a sport of street guys. A lot of guys from the street are in boxing. A lot of guys who had to do certain things to feed their families that they are not proud of that involves breaking the law. So you gotta understand, everybody is not going to have that kind of integrity where they say, 'You know what, man, I'm not going to put that in my body. I'm not going to cheat.' And especially if they believe that other people are cheating. I just happen to be lucky to have a kid that doesn't mind being tested that says, 'I don't care what anybody's on, I'm still going to win the fight,' and he's willing to put his money where his mouth is because everybody's not, believe it or not, Perc. There are fighters that make way more money than Julian and have a much bigger platform than Julian that will never volunteer for that kind of stuff. You and I both know it, so hopefully people follow suit. Hopefully the networks say, 'I'm not going to put you on unless you start testing.' I think everybody in the top 10 should be tested. I really believe that because that kind of narrows it down. You can't test every fighter in the world, you can't test the top 100, but you can test the top 10 in every division. I really believe we need to do that. It's not going to stop until somebody gets killed in the ring. Imagine how horrible it would be for a fighter to get killed in the ring and the opponent who killed him comes up positive for a PED. I guarantee you people will start testing after that. So to avoid that, just do it now."
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